Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A lengthy, appended exposition of a topic or point.
- noun A digression.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A digression; an excursion.
- noun A dissertation inserted in a work, as an edition of a classic, to elucidate some obscure or important point of the text.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A dissertation or digression appended to a work, and containing a more extended exposition of some important point or topic.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun   A fuller treatment (in a separate section) of a particular part of the text of a book, especially a classic .
- noun   A narrative digression , especially to discuss a particular issue.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a message that departs from the main subject
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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								I might come home with a new gadget that you don't have and you'll decide its time to "excursus" your right to take my money. Inequality, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009 
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								Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed it as unnecessary and even unhelpful "excursus," but the Supreme Court on Thursday gave the American people - increasingly devoted to their electronic communication devices - some broad hints that the Justices are sensitive to claims for protection for the ... 
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								Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed it as unnecessary and even unhelpful "excursus," but the Supreme Court on Thursday gave the American people - increasingly devoted to their electronic communication devices - some broad hints that the Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now ,Suzanne Ashe 2010 
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								"excursus" on Sordello's presumed effort to strike out a new form and method in poetic language. 
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								Benedicti "but Mabillon added so much to it in the way of prefaces, notes, and" excursus "that it is justly accounted as his work. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913 
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								For reasons that I cannot now recall, that excursus needed to be excised from the chapter about deceit in my last book, A Brief History of the Smile. Archive 2009-05-01 2009 
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								For reasons that I cannot now recall, that excursus needed to be excised from the chapter about deceit in my last book, A Brief History of the Smile. 
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								I could do a brief excursus on Lochner as well, but something tells me Torquemada here would sniff at that as well, intimating his sniff suffices for probative analysis. The Volokh Conspiracy » Lawsuits Against the Health Care Bill 2010 
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								In an excursus which must have given the reporters migraines, he started talking about the enlightenment concept of reason. 
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								C.S. Lewis concludes an excursus on love of country with this utilitarian observation: Stromata Blog: 2008 
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