Today's Word "discursive"
Passing from one topic to another
on
Published in Vocabulary
discursive \dis-KUR-siv\ (adjective) - 1 : Passing from one topic to another; ranging over a wide field; digressive; rambling. 2 : Utilizing, marked by, or based on analytical reasoning -- contrasted with intuitive.
"In our time, I don't see how you could disagree. It is a discursive age. Now, music itself is known both by acquaintance and discursively. Musical phrases refer the listener to other phrases, and to things outside music -- they are part of a discourse." -- Kim Stanley Robinson, 'The Memory of Whiteness'
Discursive comes from Latin discurrere, "to run in different directions, to run about, to run to and fro," from dis-, "apart, in different directions" + currere, "to run."
Comments