digress

English

WOTD – 14 March 2007

Etymology

From Latin digressum, past participle of digredi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /daɪˈɡɹɛs/, /dɪˈɡɹɛs/

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• Hyphenation: di‧gress
• Rhymes: -ɛs

Verb

digress (third-person singular simple present digresses, present participle digressing, simple past and past participle digressed)

1. (intransitive) To step or turn aside; to deviate; to swerve; especially, to turn aside from the main subject of attention, or course of argument, in writing or speaking.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:

     Moreover she beginneth to digress in latitude.

   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 3, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     In the pursuit of an argument there is hardly room to digress into a particular definition as often as a man varies the signification of any term.

   • 1959, “In Old Mexico”, Tom Lehrer (music):

     […] For I hadn't had so much fun since the day / my brother's dog Rover / got run over. / (Rover was killed by a Pontiac. And it was done with such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the driver both ears and the tail – but I digress.)

2. (intransitive) To turn aside from the right path; to transgress; to offend.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 5, scene 3]:

     Thy overflow of good converts to bad;
     And thy abundant goodness shall excuse
     This deadly blot in thy digressing son.

Usage notes

Often heard in the set phrase But I digress, where the word behaves as a stative verb, whereas it otherwise patterns as a dynamic verb.

Synonyms

• (turn from the course of argument): sidetrack

Related terms

• digression
• digressive
• excursive

Translations

to deviate

• Armenian: շեղվել (hy) (šeġvel)
• Bulgarian: отклонявам се (otklonjavam se)
• Catalan: desviar-se (ca)
• Czech: odbíhat
• Dutch: afdwalen (nl)
• Esperanto: deflankiĝi
• Finnish: eksyä (aiheesta), poiketa (aiheesta)
• French: s’écarter (fr), dévier (fr), digresser (fr)
• German: abgehen (de), abschweifen (de), ausschweifen (de)
• Hungarian: elkalandozik (hu), eltér a tárgytól
• Ido: digresar (io)
• Italian: divagare (it)
• Maori: kāwekaweka
• Polish: odbiegać (pl) impf, odbiec (pl) pf
• Portuguese: divagar (pt)
• Romanian: devia (ro)
• Russian: отклоня́ться (ru) (otklonjátʹsja), отвлекаться (ru) (otvlekatʹsja)
• Scottish Gaelic: rach a thaobh
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: застранити, одступити, скренути

  Roman: zastraniti (sh), odstupiti (sh), skrenuti (sh)

• Slovene: kreniti vstran, oddaljiti se (sl) pf
• Spanish: desviarse (es)

to transgress

• Armenian: շեղվել (hy) (šeġvel)
• Romanian: ofensa (ro)
• Russian: отступа́ть (ru) (otstupátʹ)