excursion
See also: excursión
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin excursio (“a running out, an inroad, invasion, a setting out, beginning of a speech”), from excurrere (“to run out”), from ex (“out”) + currere (“to run”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɛks.kɜː(ɹ).ʒən/, /ɛks.kɜː(ɹ).ʃən/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ʃən
Noun
excursion (plural excursions)
- A brief recreational trip; a journey out of the usual way.
- While driving home I took an excursion and saw some deer.
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
- Mother […] considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.
- A wandering from the main subject: a digression.
- (aviation) An occurrence where an aircraft runs off the end or side of a runway or taxiway, usally during takeoff, landing, or taxi.
- (phonetics) A deviation in pitch, for example in the syllables of enthusiastic speech.
Synonyms
- (recreational trip): journey, trip
- (wandering from the main subject): digression, excursus
Derived terms
- alarums and excursions
- excursion fare
- excursion rate
- excursion steamer
- power excursion
Related terms
- excursus
Translations
brief recreational trip
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wandering from the main subject
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Verb
excursion (third-person singular simple present excursions, present participle excursioning, simple past and past participle excursioned)
- (intransitive) To go on a recreational trip or excursion.
- 1825, Charles Lamb, Letter to Mr. Wordsworth, 6 April, 1825, in The Works of Charles Lamb, Volume I, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851, p. 249,
- Yesterday I excursioned twenty miles; to-day I write a few letters.
- 1880, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, Chapter 49,
- After breakfast, that next morning in Chamonix, we went out in the yard and watched the gangs of excursioning tourists arriving and departing with their mules and guides and porters […]
- 1942, Emily Carr, “Ways of Getting Round”, in The Book of Small:
- Victoria cows preferred to walk on the plank sidewalks in winter rather than dirty their hooves in the mud by the roadside. They liked to tune their chews to the tap, tap, tap of their feet on the planks. Ladies challenged the right of way by opening and shutting their umbrellas in the cows' faces and shooing, but the cows only chewed harder and stood still. It was the woman-lady, not the lady-cow who had to take to the mud and get scratched by the wild rose bushes that grew between sidewalk and fence while she excursioned round the cow.
- 1825, Charles Lamb, Letter to Mr. Wordsworth, 6 April, 1825, in The Works of Charles Lamb, Volume I, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851, p. 249,
Translations
to go on an excursion
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Further reading
- excursion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- excursion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- excursion at OneLook Dictionary Search
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin excursio, excursionem.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɛk.skyʁ.sjɔ̃/
Audio (file)
Noun
excursion f (plural excursions)
- excursion
- wander (talk off topic)
Further reading
- “excursion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.