different between discourse vs field

English

Etymology

From Middle English discours, borrowed from Middle French discours (“conversation, speech”), from Latin discursus (“the act of running about”), from Latin discurr? (“run about”), from dis- (“apart”) + curr? (“run”). Spelling modified by influence of Middle French cours (“course”). Doublet of discursus.

Pronunciation

• (mainly noun) IPA^(key): /?d?sk??(?)s/
• (mainly verb) IPA^(key): /d?s?k??(?)s/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?d?sko(?)?s/, /d?s?ko(?)?s/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?d?sko?s/, /d?s?ko?s/

Noun

discourse (countable and uncountable, plural discourses)

1. (uncountable, archaic) Verbal exchange, conversation.
   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals.

2. (uncountable) Expression in words, either speech or writing.
3. (countable) A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.

   The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

4. (countable) Any rational expression, reason.
   • 1692, Robert South, A Discourse Concerning The General Resurrection On Acts xxiv. 15

     difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason
5. (social sciences, countable) An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after Michel Foucault).
   • 2008, Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies (page 308)

     But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
6. (obsolete) Dealing; transaction.

   • Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.

Synonyms

• (expression in words): communication, expression
• (verbal exchange): debate, conversation, discussion, talk
• (formal lengthy exposition of some subject): dissertation, lecture, sermon, study, treatise
• (rational expression): ratiocination

Derived terms

• direct discourse
• indirect discourse

Related terms

• course
• discursive

Translations

Verb

discourse (third-person singular simple present discourses, present participle discoursing, simple past and past participle discoursed)

1. (intransitive) To engage in discussion or conversation; to converse.
2. (intransitive) To write or speak formally and at length.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To debate.
4. To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

5. (obsolete, transitive) To produce or emit (musical sounds).
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2, [3]

     Hamlet. […] Will you play upon this pipe? […] It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.

   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Volume II, Part II, Chapter V, p. 233, [4]

     Music discoursed on that melodious instrument, a Jew's harp, keeps the elfin women away from the hunter, because the tongue of the instrument is of steel.

   • 1915, Ralph Henry Barbour, The Secret Play, New York: D. Appleton & Co., Chapter XXIII, p. 300 [5]

     Dahl's Silver Cornet Band, augmented for the occasion to the grand total of fourteen pieces, discoursed sweet—well, discoursed music; let us not be too particular as to the quality of it.

Synonyms

• (engage in discussion or conversation): converse, talk
• (write or speak formally and at length):

Derived terms

• discourser

Translations

See also

• essay

Anagrams

• discoures, ruscoside

English

Etymology

From Middle English field, feeld, feld, from Old English feld (“field; open or cultivated land, plain; battlefield”), from Proto-West Germanic *felþu, from Proto-Germanic *felþuz, *felþaz, *felþ? (“field”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh?- (“field, plain”) or *pleth?- (“flat”) (with schwebeablaut).

Cognate with Scots feld, feild (“field”), North Frisian fjild (“field”), West Frisian fjild (“field”), Dutch veld (“field”), German Feld (“field”), Swedish fält (“field”). Related also to Old English folde (“earth, land, territory”), Old English folm (“palm of the hand”). More at fold.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fi?ld/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fild/
• Rhymes: -i?ld

Noun

field (plural fields)

2. A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country.
   1. (usually in the plural) The open country near or belonging to a town or city.
      1. An airfield, airport or air base; especially, one with unpaved runways.
4. A wide, open space that is usually used to grow crops or to hold farm animals.
   2. (geology) A region containing a particular mineral.

5. A place where competitive matches are carried out.
   2. A place where a battle is fought; a battlefield.
   4. An area reserved for playing a game or race with one’s physical force.
      1. (baseball, obsolete) The team in a match that throws the ball and tries to catch it when it is hit by the other team (the bat).
      2. (baseball) The outfield.
   5. A place where competitive matches are carried out with figures, playing field, in a board game or in a computer game.
   6. A competitive situation, circumstances in which one faces conflicting moves of rivals.
   7. (metonymically) All of the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or all except the favourites in the betting.

6. Any of various figurative meanings, often dead metaphors.
   2. (physics) A physical phenomenon (such as force, potential or fluid velocity) that pervades a region; a mathematical model of such a phenomenon that associates each point and time with a scalar, vector or tensor quantity.

   3. Any of certain structures serving cognition.
      1. The extent of a given perception.

      2. A realm of practical, direct or natural operation, contrasted with an office, classroom, or laboratory.

      4. A domain of study, knowledge or practice.

      5. An unrestricted or favourable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement.
      7. (algebra) A commutative ring satisfying the field axioms.

   4. A physical or virtual location for the input of information in the form of symbols.
      2. (heraldry) The background of the shield.
      4. (vexillology) The background of the flag.
      5. The part of a coin left unoccupied by the main device.
      6. A concrete section in a form which is supposed to be filled with data.
         • PHP 5 Forms Required Fields at W3Schools

           From the validation rules table on the previous page, we see that the "Name", "E-mail", and "Gender" fields are required. These fields cannot be empty and must be filled out in the HTML form.

      7. A component of a database in which a single unit of information is stored.
         2. (computing, object-oriented programming) An area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value, subject to virtual access controls.
   5. (electronics, film, animation) Part (usually one half) of a frame in an interlaced signal

Synonyms

• (course of study or domain of knowledge): area, domain, sphere, realm
• (area reserved for playing a game): course (for golf), court (for racquet sports), ground, pitch (for soccer, rugby, cricket)
• (location for the input of information): input field, box

Hypernyms

• (algebra): Euclidean domain ? principal ideal domain ? unique factorization domain, Noetherian domain ? integral domain ? commutative ring;   simple ring

Hyponyms

• (algebra): ordered field, Pythagorean field, residue field, extension field

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ????? (f?rudo)

Translations

Usage notes

In the mathematical sense, some languages, such as French, use a term that literally means "body". This denotes a division ring or skew field, not necessarily commutative. If it is clear from context that the quaternions and similar division rings are irrelevant, or that all division rings being considered are finite and therefore fields, this difference is ignored.

Verb

field (third-person singular simple present fields, present participle fielding, simple past and past participle fielded)

1. (transitive, sports) To intercept or catch (a ball) and play it.
2. (intransitive, baseball, softball, cricket, and other batting sports) To be the team catching and throwing the ball, as opposed to hitting it.

   The blue team are fielding first, while the reds are batting.

3. (transitive, sports) To place (a team, its players, etc.) in a game.

   The away team fielded two new players and the second-choice goalkeeper.

4. (transitive) To answer; to address.

   She will field questions immediately after her presentation.

5. (transitive) To defeat.

6. (transitive) To execute research (in the field).

7. (transitive, military) To deploy in the field.

   to field a new land-mine detector

Synonyms

• (intercept or catch (a ball) and play it):
• (place a team in (a game)):
• (answer, address): address, answer, deal with, respond to

Antonyms

• (be the team throwing and catching the ball): bat

Translations

See also

• Field in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “field”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Fidel, felid, filed, flied

Middle English

Noun

field

1. Alternative form of feeld