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
- (UK) IPA(key): /dʌɪˈɡɹɛʃən/, /dɪˈɡɹɛʃən/
Audio (southern England) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /daɪˈɡɹɛʃən/
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.
- c. 1374, Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus & Criseyde, i, l. 87:
- It were a long disgression
Fro my matere.
- It were a long disgression
- 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.
- 1517, Stephen Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, i, ll. 12 ff.:
- Nature...
More stronger hadde her operacyon
Than she hath nowe in her dygressyon.
- Nature...
- 1517, Stephen Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, i, ll. 12 ff.:
- (now rare) A deviation, an act of straying from a path.
- 1670, Charles Cotton translating Guillaume Girard as 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.
- 1670, Charles Cotton translating Guillaume Girard as History of the Life of the Duke of Espernon, Bk. i, Ch. iv, p. 144:
- (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.
- 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Bk. VI, Ch. iv, p. 288:
Synonyms
- (rhetorical device): digressio, ecbole
Related terms
- digress
Translations
a departure from the main subject in speech or writing
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See also
- detour
References
- “digression, n..”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1896.
French
Etymology
From Latin dīgressiō.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /di.ɡʁɛ.sjɔ̃/, /di.ɡʁe.sjɔ̃/
Audio (file)
Noun
digression f (plural digressions)
- digression
Further reading
- “digression”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.