The number 1 word for any person with the experience of being involved into any sorts of contemporary institutionalized learning of English is "to discuss". Dull as it may sound/look/feel, it's undeniably important and necessary.
The funny thing with this word, however, is this: if you explore those traditional sources of knowledge like m-w.com, dictionary.com, or even etymonline.com, you'll get the general, 'primeval' idea of smth close to "break an object to pieces through words" - I've put that too roughly, but still.
So, the funny thing is that in this word, "discuss" we definitely have the prefix "dis-" which means, generally, "away", "apart", and the stem "cuss". "Cuss" is a twisted form of "curse", historically. And what do we get in the end, having broken down "discuss" - "not to curse"? "uncurse"? "politespeak"? "to talk things over respectfully?"
Well, maybe, until there appears another function of the "dis-" prefix which is "profoundly", "utterly" (2 fancy words for "completely", actually): to discern, to dissect, to dissever. (When a head is cut off from a body, it becomes 'a severed' head).
So, in the end, the meaning of "discuss" is still multiverse: either being "uncurse", or "cursing to its extremity", or the (boring) default meaning of "breaking smth down with words", it's still all true.
#history
The funny thing with this word, however, is this: if you explore those traditional sources of knowledge like m-w.com, dictionary.com, or even etymonline.com, you'll get the general, 'primeval' idea of smth close to "break an object to pieces through words" - I've put that too roughly, but still.
So, the funny thing is that in this word, "discuss" we definitely have the prefix "dis-" which means, generally, "away", "apart", and the stem "cuss". "Cuss" is a twisted form of "curse", historically. And what do we get in the end, having broken down "discuss" - "not to curse"? "uncurse"? "politespeak"? "to talk things over respectfully?"
Well, maybe, until there appears another function of the "dis-" prefix which is "profoundly", "utterly" (2 fancy words for "completely", actually): to discern, to dissect, to dissever. (When a head is cut off from a body, it becomes 'a severed' head).
So, in the end, the meaning of "discuss" is still multiverse: either being "uncurse", or "cursing to its extremity", or the (boring) default meaning of "breaking smth down with words", it's still all true.
#history