Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A lengthy, appended exposition of a topic or point.
  • noun A digression.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A digression; an excursion.
  • noun A dissertation inserted in a work, as an edition of a classic, to elucidate some obscure or important point of the text.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dissertation or digression appended to a work, and containing a more extended exposition of some important point or topic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic.
  • noun A narrative digression, especially to discuss a particular issue.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a message that departs from the main subject

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, from past participle of excurrere, to run out; see excursion.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin excursus ‘excursion’.

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Examples

  • I might come home with a new gadget that you don't have and you'll decide its time to "excursus" your right to take my money.

    Inequality, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed it as unnecessary and even unhelpful "excursus," but the Supreme Court on Thursday gave the American people - increasingly devoted to their electronic communication devices - some broad hints that the Justices are sensitive to claims for protection for the ...

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now 2010

  • Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed it as unnecessary and even unhelpful "excursus," but the Supreme Court on Thursday gave the American people - increasingly devoted to their electronic communication devices - some broad hints that the

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now ,Suzanne Ashe 2010

  • "excursus" on Sordello's presumed effort to strike out a new form and method in poetic language.

    The Poetry Of Robert Browning 1874

  • Benedicti "but Mabillon added so much to it in the way of prefaces, notes, and" excursus "that it is justly accounted as his work.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913

  • For reasons that I cannot now recall, that excursus needed to be excised from the chapter about deceit in my last book, A Brief History of the Smile.

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • For reasons that I cannot now recall, that excursus needed to be excised from the chapter about deceit in my last book, A Brief History of the Smile.

    The Cheshire cat again 2009

  • I could do a brief excursus on Lochner as well, but something tells me Torquemada here would sniff at that as well, intimating his sniff suffices for probative analysis.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Lawsuits Against the Health Care Bill 2010

  • In an excursus which must have given the reporters migraines, he started talking about the enlightenment concept of reason.

    The pope wrestles with enlightenment 2010

  • C.S. Lewis concludes an excursus on love of country with this utilitarian observation:

    Stromata Blog: 2008

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