different between excursus vs excursion

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin excursus (“excursion”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sk??s?s/

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

Latin

Etymology

Perfect passive participle of excurr?.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ek?skur.sus/, [?k?s?k?rs??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ek?skur.sus/, [?k?skursus]

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 excurs?s); fourth declension

1. excursion
2. sally, sortie, raid

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Derived terms

• excursi?

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, 1883–1887)
• excursus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin excursio (“a running out, an inroad, invasion, a setting out, beginning of a speech”), from excurrere (“to run out”), from ex (“out”) + currere (“to run”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ks.k??(?).??n/, /?ks.k??(?).??n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)??n

Noun

excursion (plural excursions)

1. A brief recreational trip; a journey out of the usual way.
2. A wandering from the main subject: a digression.
3. (aviation) An occurrence where an aircraft runs off the end or side of a runway or taxiway, usally during takeoff, landing, or taxi.
4. (phonetics) A deviation in pitch, for example in the syllables of enthusiastic speech.

Synonyms

• (recreational trip): journey, trip
• (wandering from the main subject): digression, excursus

Derived terms

• alarums and excursions
• excursion fare
• excursion steamer
• power excursion

Related terms

• excursus

Translations

Verb

excursion (third-person singular simple present excursions, present participle excursioning, simple past and past participle excursioned)

1. (intransitive) To go on a recreational trip or excursion.
   • 1825, Charles Lamb, Letter to Mr. Wordsworth, 6 April, 1825, in The Works of Charles Lamb, Volume I, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851, p. 249, [2]

     Yesterday I excursioned twenty miles; to-day I write a few letters.

   • 1880, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, Chapter 49, [3]

     After breakfast, that next morning in Chamonix, we went out in the yard and watched the gangs of excursioning tourists arriving and departing with their mules and guides and porters […]

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “Ways of Getting Round,” [4]

     Victoria cows preferred to walk on the plank sidewalks in winter rather than dirty their hooves in the mud by the roadside. They liked to tune their chews to the tap, tap, tap of their feet on the planks. Ladies challenged the right of way by opening and shutting their umbrellas in the cows' faces and shooing, but the cows only chewed harder and stood still. It was the woman-lady, not the lady-cow who had to take to the mud and get scratched by the wild rose bushes that grew between sidewalk and fence while she excursioned round the cow.

Translations

Further reading

• excursion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• excursion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• excursion at OneLook Dictionary Search

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin excursio, excursionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.sky?.sj??/

Noun

excursion f (plural excursions)

1. excursion
2. wander (talk off topic)

Further reading

• “excursion” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).