Middle English Dictionary Entry
discǒurs n.
Entry Info
| Forms | discǒurs n. Also discurse, -cors. |
| Etymology | L |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
The faculty or process of reason, ratiocination; ~ of resoun, the process of reason; maken ~, to employ reason.
Associated quotations
- ?a1425(c1380) Chaucer Bo.(Benson-Robinson)5.pr.4.215 : Intelligence..byholdeth alle thingis..by a strook of thought formely withoute discours or collacioun.
- c1450(1410) Walton Boeth.(Lin-C 103)p.261 : Right as discours ne may noþing be mete Vnto þe intellecte of mannes mynde.
- (c1454) Pecock Fol.(Roy 17.D.9)36/9 : No beest may in his wittes make discurse, þat is to seie, a cowplyng togidere of two treuþis to him bifore knowen, forto conclude in foorm of argument þe iije treuþ.
- a1500(1413) *Pilgr.Soul (Eg 615)4.30.74a : The soule..sekith be discours of reason the skeles and the causes of the wonderful beawte of this forsaid creatures.
- a1500(1413) *Pilgr.Soul (Eg 615)4.30.74b : An aungil..knowith alle thing in the maker only; therfor, thei procede no ferther to seke it be discors.
2.
Med. The discharging of a scrofulous sore.
Associated quotations
- ?a1425 *Chauliac(1) (NY 12)33a/a : Multiplicacioun of scrophulez & discurse or rennyng [*Ch.(2): mysrennynge; L discursus] of þam.
Supplemental Materials (draft)
- (1445) ?Bokenham Claudian CS (Add 11814)265/95 : Stillicois wrath..ofte provokyd with bataile him self to venge and to yive cause..of risyng of common peopil; The reuerence yit of thi souereyns high…Evir clene was savid within thi breste…In myddis of tho grete discoursis [L mediis discursibus] in themperours halle late reysed.
Note: New sense: add a sense 3.: ?Running to and fro, disorder.--per SMK