excurse

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It's a recognised English word, but it isn't in the official NASPA Scrabble word list.

Scrabble points
16
Words With Friends
18
Letters
7

Definition of excurse

5 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (archaic, intransitive, rare)To make a journey, especially an excursion; to travel.
    “In which of the nine hundred ſtreets—I mean lanes—of this capital of the world—for who can diſpute a Pariſian’s word, who never has excurſed beyond the gates?”
    “Let’s all help our bodies get over what we did to them this winter by taking an excursion to Grace Spa. Or pick the spa of your choice. But it was Grace Spa that I excursed to and that I'm writing about firsthand.”
    “There was a notable lack of security, ostensibly because the place was so isolated, although it seems that journalists still thronged about the borders, leaping from beds of nettles to catch a glimpse of the royal party of excursing.”
See all 5 definitions

verb

  1. (archaic, intransitive, rare)To make a journey, especially an excursion; to travel.
    “In which of the nine hundred ſtreets—I mean lanes—of this capital of the world—for who can diſpute a Pariſian’s word, who never has excurſed beyond the gates?”
    “Let’s all help our bodies get over what we did to them this winter by taking an excursion to Grace Spa. Or pick the spa of your choice. But it was Grace Spa that I excursed to and that I'm writing about firsthand.”
    “There was a notable lack of security, ostensibly because the place was so isolated, although it seems that journalists still thronged about the borders, leaping from beds of nettles to catch a glimpse of the royal party of excursing.”
  2. (archaic, intransitive)To digress; to turn aside from the main subject of attention.
    “But how I excurſe!—Yet thou uſedſt to ſay, thou likedſt my excurſions. If thou doſt, thou’lt have enow of them: For I never had a ſubject I ſo much adored; […]”
  3. (obsolete, transitive)To travel or pass through.

noun

  1. Synonym of excursus.
    “By the labors of the Bridgewater writers, the argument has been cleared of many extraneous and unnecessary excurses.”
    “Prof. Kuhn shows further that the original version seems to have been better preserved in the Arabic text, at least so far as the end of the tale is concerned. In two Excurses, pp. 40–45 and 45–50, he examines the Hebrew version of [Abraham ben Samuel ha-Levi] Ibn Hisdai (c. 1250) and the Greek; […]”
    “Actually, the passage occurs in an excurse in the edictal commentary, the exact meaning of which is unknown; […]”
    “Sometimes, there are overlong excurses in drawing out parallels with other Victorians.”
  2. (obsolete)An act of moving or rushing forward or out; an incursion by troops.
    “Ad hæc fratetnitati^([sic]) tuæ præcipiendo modo quo te in Cantuarienſem Eccleſiam recipias, & paucis quidem clericis retêtis admodū neceſſariis, ad minus quam poteris per terram illam diſcurras.”
    “But foꝛſomuch as now not caring foꝛ thy oth, noꝛ regarding the ſafetie of thy hoſtages, thou haſt ſo fondlie ⁊ lewdlie paſſed thy bounds: I am to require thée, that thou doo retire and withdꝛaw theſe excurſes of ſtrangers; […]”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Probably partly from Classical Latin excurs-, past participial stem of excurrō, and partly from the noun.

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