Word of the Day

: January 9, 2025

excursion

noun ik-SKER-zhun

What It Means

Excursion refers to a trip, and especially to a short one made for pleasure. Excursion is also often used figuratively to refer to a deviation from a direct, definite, or proper course, and often in particular to a digression.

// Some of Maya’s most cherished childhood memories are of fishing excursions with her grandpa.

// Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass is an excursion into a fantastical world where nothing is what it seems to be, and everything appears to be what it is not.

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excursion in Context

“… in the late sixties, he [Miles Davis] abandoned acoustic jazz altogether, moving to the easy/uneasy blend of jazz and rock that would cause consternation among jazz purists and come to be known as fusion. Then, in 1975, plagued by profuse health problems and addictions, he left music altogether, not to return until 1981. Audiences and record buyers welcomed his comeback, though jazz’s zealous gatekeepers continued to fret about his stylistic excursions and commercial aspirations.” — James Kaplan, 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool, 2024

Did You Know?

A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 album The Low End Theory is not only widely regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, but one of the genre’s most successful early excursions into jazz, utilizing samples and even featuring legendary bassist Ron Carter on one song. Excursion refers to a usually brief, pleasurable trip, and is often used figuratively—as in the previous sentence—for metaphorical trips outside of one’s usual territory, be they artistic or otherwise. The word comes from the Latin verb excurrere (“to run out” or “to extend”), which combines the prefix ex- meaning “out of” and the verb currere meaning “to run.” Although it is sometimes used to refer to attacks or raids made against an enemy, as in “military excursions,” excursion is mostly used today for much more enjoyable jaunts, junkets, and rambles. Accordingly, on your next excursion, whether to the park, beach, or elsewhere, you could do worse than to queue up The Low End Theory on your playlist. The album’s first track, after all, is titled “Excursions.”