excursus

American  

[ek-skur-suhs] / ɛkˈskɜr səs /

noun

plural

excursuses, excursus

1. a detailed discussion of some point in a book, especially one added as an appendix.

2. a digression or incidental excursion, as in a narrative.

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excursus British  

/ ɛkˈskɜːsəs /

noun

1. an incidental digression from the main topic under discussion or from the main story in a narrative

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Etymology

Origin of excursus

1795–1805; < Latin: a running out, sally, digression, derivative of excurrere to run out. See ex- ¹, course

Example Sentences

Especially trying is Book Six’s 400-plus page excursus into Hitler and the etiology of the Third Reich.

From New York Times • Sep. 17, 2018

Following an excursus into the world of poststructuralist theory at Yale and in Paris, he switched his field to political science and received his Ph.D. from Harvard’s government department.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 27, 2018

There are graph-like illustrations, circles, arrows, number lines, maps and even an irrelevant excursus about an outmoded text editor called Kedit.

From Washington Post • Sep. 6, 2017

At the start of the novel “A Heart So White,” from 1992, the mysterious suicide of a newlywed is followed by an excursus on the nature of marital intimacy.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 8, 2016

This has been a long excursus, and we must get back to our jaunt on the plain.

From Birds of the Rockies by Keyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)