excursus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin excursus (“excursion”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈskɜːsəs/

Noun

excursus (plural excursuses or excursus)

1. A fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic.
2. A narrative digression, especially to discuss a particular issue.
   • 1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, After You with the Pistol, Penguin 2001, p. 204:

     Here is what us scholars call an excursus. If you are an honest man the following page or two can be of no possible interest to you.

   • 2007, Glen Bowersock, ‘Provocateur’, London Review of Books 29:4, p. 16:

     In his excursus on the Jewish people at the opening of the fifth book of his Histories [...], Tacitus was at a loss to uncover any deep cause for the war that broke out in 66.

Related terms

• excursion

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Latin

Etymology

Perfect passive participle of excurrō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ekˈskur.sus/, [ɛkˈs̠kʊrs̠ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ekˈskur.sus/, [ekˈskursus]

Participle

excursus (feminine excursa, neuter excursum); first/second-declension participle

1. having run out, run forth, hastened towards
2. having sallied forth
3. having projected, extended

Descendants

• Italian: scorso
• Romanian: scurs

Noun

excursus m (genitive excursūs); fourth declension

1. excursion
2. sally, sortie, raid

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	excursus	excursūs
Genitive	excursūs	excursuum
Dative	excursuī	excursibus
Accusative	excursum	excursūs
Ablative	excursū	excursibus
Vocative	excursus	excursūs

Derived terms

• excursiō

Descendants

• Catalan: excurs
• English: excursus
• Italian: scorso

References

• “excursus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “excursus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• excursus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• excursus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.