Etymology

discursive

D2I1S1C3U1R1S1I1V4E1

Today it means: Tending to digress from the main point. Full definition →

Middle French discursif ← Latin discursus ← Medieval Latin discursivus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromdiscursivus
  2. Latin · derived fromdiscursus
  3. Middle French · borrowed fromdiscursif
  4. English todaydiscursive

Borrowed from Middle French discursif, formed from the stem of Latin discursus and the suffix -if, and in part borrowed from Medieval Latin discursivus. By surface analysis, discourse + -ive.

Words from the same roots

Latindiscursus all →

discoursediscursus

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.