digression
English
Alternative forms
- (obsolete) degression, disgression
Etymology
From Old French digressiun or disgressiun, from Latin digressio, from digressus + -io (“forming abstract nouns from verbs”), the past passive participle of digredi (“to step away, to digress”), from dis- + gradi (“to step, walk, go”).
Pronunciation
Noun
digression (countable and uncountable, plural digressions)
- An aside, an act of straying from the main subject in speech or writing.
- The lectures included lengthy digressions on topics ranging from the professor's dog to the meaning of life.
- 2022 November 21, Barney Ronay, “Iran’s brave and powerful gesture is a small wonder from a World Cup of woe”, in The Guardian:
- History tells us stodgy, cautious stuff, cardigan-football is the way to go here. The 1966 World Cup kicked off with 0-0 draw against Uruguay so tedious the Guardian match report contains a whimsical digression on the writer’s urge to drift off to sleep in the second half.
- (generally uncountable) The act of straying from the main subject in speech or writing, (rhetoric) particularly for rhetorical effect.
- make digression... by way of digression...
- (obsolete) A deviancy, a sin or error, an act of straying from the path of righteousness or a general rule.
- (now rare) A deviation, an act of straying from a path.
- 1670, Guillaume Girard, translated by Charles Cotton, History of the Life of the Duke of Espernon, Bk. i, Ch. iv, p. 144:
- By this little digression into Gascony, the Duke had an opportunity... to re-inforce himself with some particular Servants of his.
- (astronomy, physics) An elongation, a deflection or deviation from a mean position or expected path.
- 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Bk. VI, Ch. iv, p. 288:
- This digression [of the Sun] is not equall, but neare the Æquinoxiall intersections, it is right and greater, near the Solstices, more oblique and lesser.
Related terms
Translations
a departure from the main subject in speech or writing
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See also
References
- “digression, n..”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1896.
French
Etymology
From Latin dīgressiōnem.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /di.ɡʁɛ.sjɔ̃/, /di.ɡʁe.sjɔ̃/
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “digression”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle English
Noun
digression
- digression
- c. 1380s, [Geoffrey Chaucer, William Caxton, editor], The Double Sorow of Troylus to Telle Kyng Pryamus Sone of Troye [...] [Troilus and Criseyde], [Westminster]: Explicit per Caxton, published 1482, →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], book I, [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:
Swedish
Declension
| Declension of digression | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
| Nominative | digression | digressionen | digressioner | digressionerna |
| Genitive | digressions | digressionens | digressioners | digressionernas |
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