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Origin and history of digress

digress(v.)

"to turn away in speaking or writing from the direct or appointed course," 1520s, from Latin digressus, past participle of digredi "to go aside, depart, deviate," from dis- "apart, aside" (see dis-) + gradi "to step, go" (from PIE root *ghredh- "to walk, go"). Or perhaps it is a back-formation from digression. Related: Digressed; digressing.

digress

also from 1520s

Entries linking to digress

dis-

word-forming element of Latin origin meaning 1. "lack of, not" (as in dishonest); 2. "opposite of, do the opposite of" (as in disallow); 3. "apart, away" (as in discard), from Old French des- or directly from Latin dis- "apart, asunder, in a different direction, between," figuratively "not, un-," also "exceedingly, utterly." Assimilated as dif- before -f- and to di- before most voiced consonants.

The Latin prefix is from PIE *dis- "apart, asunder" (source also of Old English te-, Old Saxon ti-, Old High German ze-, German zer-). The PIE root is a secondary form of *dwis- and thus is related to Latin bis "twice" (originally *dvis) and to duo, on notion of "two ways, in twain" (hence "apart, asunder").

In classical Latin, dis- paralleled de- and had much the same meaning, but in Late Latin dis- came to be the favored form and this passed into Old French as des-, the form used for compound words formed in Old French, where it increasingly had a privative sense ("not"). In English, many of these words eventually were altered back to dis-, while in French many have been altered back to de-. The usual confusion prevails.

As a living prefix in English, it reverses or negatives what it is affixed to. Sometimes, as in Italian, it is reduced to s- (as in spend, splay, sport, sdain for disdain, and the surnames Spencer and Spence).

*ghredh-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to walk, go." 

It might form all or part of: aggress; aggression; aggressive; centigrade; congress; degrade; degree; degression; digress; digression; egress; gradation; grade; gradual; graduate; grallatorial; gravigrade; ingredient; ingress; plantigrade; progress; progression; regress; regression; retrograde; retrogress; tardigrade; transgress; transgression.

It might also be the source of: Latin gradus "a step, a pace, gait," figuratively "a step toward something, a degree of something rising by stages;" gradi "to walk, step, go;" Lithuanian gridiju, gridyti "to go, wander;" Old Church Slavonic gredo "to come;" Old Irish in-greinn "he pursues."

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    depart
    mid-13c., departen, "part from each other, part company;" late 13c., "separate into parts," original senses now archaic or obsolete, from Old French departir (10c.) "to divide, distribute; separate (oneself), depart; die," from Late Latin departire "to divide" (transitive), from
    straggle
    early 15c., stragelen, "wander from the proper path; rove from one's companions, become separated; move about without fixed direction or purpose," a word of uncertain etymology but ultimately from a Germanic "go, move" word (cognate with Middle Low German straken, Old High German
    stray
    c. 1300, straien, of animals, "wander away from an enclosure or herd," also figurative, of persons, "wander from the path of justice or rectitude," a shortening of Old French estraier "wander about, roam, drift, run loose," said of animals, especially a horse without a master, al
    square
    .-17c. the verb also could mean "deviate, vary, digress, fall out of order." Related: Squared; squaring....
    divagate
    "wander about, stray from place to place," 1590s, from Latin divagatus, past participle of divagari "to wander about," from assimilated form of dis- "apart, in different directions" (see dis-) + vagari "to wander, ramble," from vagus "strolling, wandering, rambling," figuratively
    tell
    Old English tellan "to reckon, calculate, number, compute; consider, think, esteem, account" (past tense tealde, past participle teald), from Proto-Germanic *taljan "to mention in order" (source also of Old Saxon tellian "tell," Old Norse telja "to count, number; to tell, say," O
    satyr
    late 14c., satire, "one of a type of woodland deities part human or animal; demigod or spirit of the air or woods, companion of Bacchus," from Old French satire and directly from Latin satyrus, from Greek satyros, a word of unknown origin. "The etymology of [satyros] is unknown.
    deviate
    1630s, "turn aside or wander from the (right) way," from Late Latin deviatus, past participle of deviare "to turn aside, turn out of the way," from Latin phrase de via, from de "off" (see de-) + via "way" (see via). Meaning "take a different course, diverge, differ" is from 1690s
    wander
    Middle English wandren, from Old English wandrian "move about aimlessly, wander," from West Germanic *wundrōjanan "roam about" (source also of Old Frisian wondria, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch wanderen, German wandern "to wander," a variant form of the verb represented in Old
    Andrew
    masc. proper name, from Old French Andreu (Modern French André), from Late Latin Andreas (source also of Spanish Andrés, Italian Andrea, German Andreas, Swedish and Danish Anders), from Greek Andreas, a personal name equivalent to andreios (adj.) "manly, masculine, of or for a ma

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