discouragement 
The books read at schools and colleges are full of in- 
citements to virtue and discouragements from vice. Swift. 
The steddy course of a virtuous and religious life, . . . 
resisting all the temptations of the world, overcoming all 
difficulties, and persevering to the end under all discou- 
ragements. Clarke, Works, II. 8. 
= Syn. 1. Dissuasion. 2. Dejection, hopelessness. 3. 
Hindrance, opposition, obstacle, impediment. 
discourager (dis-kur'a-jer), . 1. One who 
or that which discourages, disheartens, or de- 
presses the courage. 2. One who discourages, 
discountenances, or deters: as, a discourager 
of or from marriage. 
Those discouragers and abaters of elevated love. 
Dryden, The Assignation, iii. 1. 
discouraging (dis-kur'a-jing), p. a. [Ppr. of 
discourage, v.] Tending to dishearten or to 
depress the courage; disheartening: as, dis- 
couraging prospects. 
discouragingly (dis-kur'a-jing-li), adv. In a 
discouraging manner. 
discourse (dis-kors'), n, [< ME. discourse = D. 
G. discours = Dan. Sw. diskurs, < OF. discours, 
F. discours = Sp. Pg. discurso = It. discorso, 
discourse, < L. diseursus, a running to and fro, 
a running about, a pace, gait, LL. a discourse, 
conversation, ML. also reasoning, the reason- 
ing faculty, < discurrere, pp. diseursus, run to 
and fro, run through or over, hasten, LL. go 
over a subject, speak at length of, discourse of 
(> It. discorrere = Sp. discurrir = Pg. discorrer 
= F. discourir, discourse), < dis-, away, in dif- 
ferent directions, + currere, run : see current 1 , 
and cf. course^, concourse. Hence discursive, 
etc.] 1. A running over a subject in speech; 
hence, a communication of thoughts by words ; 
expression of ideas; mutual intercourse ; talk; 
conversation. 
1654 
Thu. How likes she my discourse? 
Pro. Ill, when you talk of war. 
Thu. But well, when I discourse of love and peace? 
Shak., 1. G. of V., v. 2. 
Nay, good my lord, sit still ; I'll promise peace, 
And fold mine arms up; let but mine eye discourse. 
Beau, and Fl., Woman-Hater, iii. 1. 
He had always in his house doctors and masters, with 
whom he discoursed concerning the knowledge and the 
books he studied. ficknor, Span. Lit., I. 334. 
2. To treat of or discuss a subject in a formal 
manner in writing. 
The general maxims we are discoursing of are not known 
to children, idiots, and a great part of mankind. Locke. 
3f. To narrate ; give a relation ; tell. 
Or by what means got'st thou to be released? 
Discourse, I prithee, on this turret's top. 
Shale., 1 Hen. VI., i. 4. 
4. To reason; argue from premises to conse- 
quences. 
Nor can the soule discourse or judge of aught 
But what the sense collects and home doth bring ; 
And yet the power of her discoursing thought, 
From these collections, is a divers thing. 
Sir J. Dames, Nosce Teipsum. 
II. trans. If. To treat of; talk over; discuss. 
Go with us into the abbey here, 
And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes. 
Shak., C. of E., v. 1. 
Medicines and cures were first found out, and then after 
the reasons and causes were discoursed. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 210. 
Some of them discoursing their travels, and of their te- 
dious captivity in the Turk's galleys. 
B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1. 
2. To utter or give forth. 
Give it [the pipe] breath with your mouth, and it will 
discourse most excellent music. Shak., Hamlet, iii. 2. 
3f. To talk or confer with. 
I have spoken to my brother, who is the patron, to dis- 
course the minister about it. Evelyn. 
I have discoursed several Men that were in that Expe- 
dition, and if I mistake not, Captain Sharp was one of 
them. Dumpier, Voyages, I. 129. 
I waked him, and would discourse him. 
Walpole, Letters, II. 156. 
discourselesst (dis-kors'les), a. [< discourse 
+ -less.] Without discourse or reason. 
To attempt things whence rather harm may after result 
unto us then good is the part of rash and discouneless 
brains. Shelton, tr. of Don Quixote, II. vi. 
One who dis- 
Rich she shall be, ... of good discourse, an excellent 
musician, and her hair shall be of what colour it please 
God. Shak., Much Ado, ii. 3. 
His wisdom was greate, and judgment most acute; of 
solid discourse, affable, humble, and in nothing affected. 
Evelyn, Diary (1623), p. 4. 
The vanquished party with the victors joined, 
Nor wanted sweet discourse, the banquet of the mind. 
Dryden. 
You shall have very useful and cheering discourse at 
several times with two several men, but let all three of 
you come together, and you shall not have one new and 
hearty word. Emerson, Essays, Istser., p. 189. 
2. A running over in the mind of premises and ^SCOUTSer (dis-kor'ser), . 1. C 
deducing of conclusions ; the exercise of, or an eourses ; a speaker; a haranguer. 
act of exercising, the logical or reasoning facul- 
ty ; hence, the power of reasoning from prem- 
ises; rationality. 
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before, and after, gave us not 
That capability and godlike reason 
To fust in us unus'd. Shak., Hamlet, iv. 4. 
Reason is her [the soul's] being, 
Discursive or intuitive : discourse 
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours. 
Milton, P. L., v. 488. 
Our modern philosophers have too much exalted the 
faculties of our souls when they have maintained that by 
their force mankind has been able to find out that there 
is one Supreme Agent or Intellectual Being, which we 
are the remote effects of revelation, and unattainable by 
our discourse. Dryden, Religio Laid, Pref. 
Discourse indicates the operation of comparison, the 
running backwards and forwards between the characters 
and notes of objects ; this term may, therefore, be prop- 
erly applied to the elaborative faculty in general. The 
terms discourse and diseursus are, however, often nay 
generally, used for the reasoning process, strictly con- 
Sllll!red - Sir W. Hamilton. 
garrulity, of Cicero on old age; an eloquent 
discourse. 4f. Debate; contention; strife. 
The villaine . . . 
Himselfe addrest unto this new debate, 
And with his club him all about so blist, 
That he which way to turne him scarcely wist. 
At last the caytive, after long discourse, 
When all his strokes he saw avoyded quite 
Resolved in one t' assemble all his force. 
Spenser, F. Q., VI. viii. 14. 
This man is perfect ; 
A civiler discourser I ne'er talk'd with. 
Fletcher, The Pilgrim, iii. 7. 
2f. A writer of a treatise or dissertation. 
The Historian makes himself a Discourser for profit; 
and an Orator, yea, a Poet sometimes, for ornament. 
Sir P. Sidney (Arber's Bug. Garner, I. 306). 
diseoursingt (dis-kor'sing), a. [< discourse + 
-ing 2 .] Wandering; incoherent; discursive. 
A factious hart, a discoursing head. 
Ascham, The Scholemaster, p. 78. 
We, through madness, 
Frame strange conceits in our discoursing brains. 
Ford, Lady's Trial, iii. 3. 
discoursivet (dis-kor'siv), a. [< discourse + 
-ive, after discursive, q. v.] 1. Discursive. 2. 
Containing dialogue or conversation ; interloc- 
utory. 
The epic is ... interlaced with dialogue or discmtreive 
scenes. Dryden, Essay on Dram. Poesy. 
3. Conversable; communicative. 
He found him a complaisant man, very free and dis- 
coursive. Life of A. Wood, p. 225. 
[< OF. des- 
^ descortes = Pg. 
descortez = It. discortese, scortese), < des- priv. 
+ courtois, courteous: see dis- and courteous.] 
Wanting in courtesy; uncivil; rude. 
He resolved to unhorse the first discourteous knight. 
Cervantes, Don Quixote (trans.). 
discourteously (dis-ker'te-us-li), adv. In a 
rude or uncivil manner; with incivility. 
Duke. What, is Signior Veterano fall'n asleep and at 
the recitation of such verses ! 
[In this passage the editors usually but erroneously give Pet - Has he wrong'd me so 'discourteously ? I'll be re- 
discourse a literal sense, a running about, hence a shift- veng'd, by Phoebus < Marmion, The Antiquary, iv. 1. 
rcourse; dealing; transaction. Beau. 
or ideas 
treat in a ou luauuvi , uum IUITU: expatiate: " ywj """. *"*" T " V J ? 
converse: as, to discourse on the properties of rudeness of behavior or language; ill manners. 
the circle ; the preacher discoursed on. the nature 5* calln in arguing ; for flercenesse makes 
and effect of faith Errour a fault, and truth discourteme. 
U. Herbert, Church Porch. 
discover 
2. An act of disrespect or incivility. 
Proclamation was made, none vpon paine of death to 
presume to doe vs any wrong or discourtesie. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's True Travels, I. 167. 
Lancelot knew that she was looking at him, 
And yet he glanced not up, nor waved his hand, 
Nor bad farewell, but sadly rode away. 
This was the one discourtesy that he used. 
Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine. 
discourtshipt (dis-kort'ship), n. [< dis- priv. + 
courtship.] Want of respect ; discourtesy. 
Monsieur, we must not so much betray ourselves to 
discourtship, as to suffer you to be longer unsaluted. 
B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, v. 2. 
discerns (dis'kus), a. [< disc, disk, + -ous.] 
Disk-shaped; discoid. See discoid. 
discovenant (dis-kuv'e-nant), v. t. [< dis- 
priv. + coreiutnt.] To dissolve covenant with. 
Craig. 
discover (dis-kuv'er), v. [< ME. discoreren, 
diskoveren, descuveren, also diskeveren (> mod. 
E. dial, diskiver), and contr. discuren, descuren 
(see discure), < OF. descovrir, descuvrir, des- 
couverir, F. decouvrir = Pr. descobrir, descubrir 
= Sp. descubrir = Pg. descobrir = It. discoprire, 
discovrire, scoprire, scovrire, < ML. discooperire, 
discover, reveal, < L. dis- priv. + cooperire, 
cover: see com- 1 , .] I. trans. If. To uncover; 
lay open to view; disclose; make visible; hence, 
to show. 
Than sholde ye haue sey shotte of arowes and quarelles 
He so thikke that noon durste discouer his heed. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 660. 
Pan . . . discovered her to the rest. 
Bacon, Fable of Pan. 
Go, draw 'aside the curtains, and discover 
The several caskets to this noble prince. 
Shak., M. of V., ii. 7. 
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and dis- 
cocereth the forests [revised version, "strippeth the forests 
bare "]. Ps. xxix. 9. 
The opening of the Earth shall discover confused and 
dark Hell. Hoivell, Letters, iv. 43. 
2. To exhibit; allow to be seen and known; 
act so as to manifest (unconsciously or unin- 
tentionally) ; betray : as, to discover a generous 
spirit; he discovered great confusion. [Ar- 
chaic.] 
0, I shall discover myself ! I tremble so unlike a sol- 
dier. Sheridan (?), The Camp, ii. 3. 
I think the lady discovered both generosity and a just 
way of thinking, in this rebuke which she gave her lover. 
Lamb, Modern Gallantry. 
It was inevitable that time should discover the differ- 
ences between characters and intellects so unlike. 
E. Dmvden, Shelley, I. 130. 
3. To make known by speech ; tell ; reveal. 
Then, Joan, discover thine infirmity ; 
That warranteth by law to be thy privilege. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., v. 4. 
I find him in great anxiety, though he will not discover 
it, in the business of the proceedings of Parliament. 
Pepys, Diary, III. 390. 
4. To gain a sight of, especially for the first 
time or after a period of concealment; espy: 
as, land was discovered on the lee bow. 
When we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left 
hand. Acts xxi. 3. 
Hence 5. To gain the first knowledge of; find 
out, as something that was before entirely un- 
known, either to men in general, to the finder, 
or to persons concerned : as, Columbus discov- 
ered the new world; Newton discovered the law 
of gravitation ; we often discover our mistakes 
when too late. 
Marchants & trauellers, who by late nauigations haue 
surueyed the whole world, and discovered large countries 
and strange peoples wild and sauage. 
P'uttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 7. 
Crimes of the most frightful kind had been discovered ; 
others were suspected. Macaulay, Nugent's Hampden. 
6f. To explore ; bring to light by examination. 
In the mean time, we had sent men to discover Merri- 
niack, and found some part of it above Penkook to lie more 
northerly than forty-three and a half. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 365. 
7t. To cause to cease to be a covering ; make 
to be no longer a cover. 
For the greatness of thy iniquity are thy skirts discov- 
ered and thy heels made bare. Jer xiii. 22. 
= Syn. 3. To communicate, impart. 4. To descry, dis- 
cern, behold. 6. Discover, Invent, agree in signifying to 
find out ; but we discover what already exists, though to 
us unknown ; we invent what did not before exist: as, to 
discover the applicability of steam to the purposes of lo- 
comotion, and to invent the machinery necessary to use 
steam for these ends. (See invention.) Some things are 
of so mixed a character that either word may be applied 
to them. 
A great poet invents nothing, but seems rather to re- 
discover the world alx>ut him, and his penetrating vision 
gives to things of daily encounter something of the strange- 
ness of new creation. 
Lou't'll, Among my Hooks, Istser., p. 203. 
