word | discursive |
---|---|
definition | Passing from one topic to another. |
eg_sentence | Some days he allowed himself to write long discursive essays in his diary instead of his usual simple reporting of the day's events. |
explanation | The Latin verb discurrere meant “to run about,” and from this word we get our word discursive, which often means rambling about over a wide range of topics. A discursive writing style generally isn't encouraged by writing teachers. But some of the great 19th-century writers, such as Charles Lamb and Thomas de Quincey, show that the discursive essay, especially when gracefully written and somewhat personal in tone, can be a pleasure to read. And the man often called the inventor of the essay, the great Michel de Montaigne, might touch on dozens of different topics in the course of a long discursive essay |
IPA | dɪˈskərsɪv |
Tags: mwvb::unit:4, mwvb::unit:4:word, mwvb::word, mwvb::word-cloze, mwvb::word-reverse, obsidian_to_anki
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