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Webster 1913 Edition


Discursive

Dis-cur′sive

,
Adj.
[Cf. F.
discursif
. See
Discourse
, and cf.
Discoursive
.]
1.
Passing from one thing to another; ranging over a wide field; roving; digressive; desultory.
Discursive notices.”
De Quincey.
The power he [Shakespeare] delights to show is not intense, but
discursive
.
Hazlitt.
A man rather tacit than
discursive
.
Carlyle.
2.
Reasoning; proceeding from one ground to another, as in reasoning; argumentative.
Dis-cur′sive-ly
,
adv.
Dis-cur′sive-ness
,
Noun.

Webster 1828 Edition


Discursive

DISCURSIVE

,
Adj.
[L., supra.]
1.
Moving or roving about; desultory.
2.
Argumentative; reasoning; proceeding regularly from premises to consequences; sometimes written discursive. Whether brutes have a kind of discursive faculty.

Definition 2024


discursive

discursive

English

Adjective

discursive (comparative more discursive, superlative most discursive)

  1. (of speech or writing) Tending to digress from the main point; rambling.
    • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page viii
      This means, at times, long and perhaps overly discursive discussions of other taxa.
  2. (philosophy) Using reason and argument rather than intuition.

Derived terms

Translations

See also


French

Adjective

discursive

  1. feminine singular of discursif

Latin

Adjective

discursive

  1. vocative masculine singular of discursivus