MEANING: DISCURSIVE

Donald Trump was just described as discursive, so I looked it up.

Discursive has several meanings, but this seems to be the most relevant one: digressing from subject to subject. 

That sounds about right.

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All over the place

Rambling man: I was reading a NY Times story on comedian/actor Tom Arnold and the writer said, "He told a discursive story..." I'd never heard of discursive, so, naturally, I looked it up.

dis·cur·sive
Pronunciation: \dis-ˈkər-siv\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Medieval Latin discursivus, from Latin discursus, past participle of discurrere to run about — more at discourse
Date: 1598

1 a: moving from topic to topic without order : rambling b: proceeding coherently from topic to topic2: marked by analytical reasoning3: of or relating to discourse
— dis·cur·sive·ly adverb
— dis·cur·sive·ness noun

Yes, that sounds like Tom Arnold; but in a good way.

Special blog: You might check out the highly visual but very verbal blog of Maira Kalman; it appears on the NY Times web site. So far, I've read a lot about two of my heroes, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin.

Who would have imagined that I'd get Tom Arnold, Ben Franklin and Mr. Jefferson in one blog entry?

><

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  BLUESKY: PROFILE

MORE EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

BLOG ENTRIES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

ANECDOTES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer OUTTA there!

ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing