discus

noun

dis·​cus ˈdi-skəs 

plural discuses

: a heavy disk (as of wood or plastic) that is thicker in the center than at the perimeter and that is hurled for distance as a track-and-field event

also : the event

Illustration of discus

Examples of discus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There are two goals on discus athlete and Texas native Valarie Allman's mind while at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris: winning gold and Texas barbecue. —Brandi D. Addison, Austin American-Statesman, 9 Aug. 2024

Other finals of note are the women’s pole vault, men’s discus and men’s 3,000 steeplechase. —John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2024

Allman wrapped up the gold medal in discus throwing before the event was over. —Jason Mastrodonato, The Mercury News, 5 Aug. 2024

Men’s discus qualification, 4:10 a.m. Women’s pole vault qualification, 4:40 a.m. Women’s 400-m hurdles repechages, 4:50 a.m. —Bychris Morris, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin discus, borrowed from Greek dískos "discus," in Late Greek also "dish, round mirror, the sun's disk, gong," of uncertain origin

Note: For English loanwords going back to dískos see dais, desk, dish entry 1, and disk entry 1. Greek dískos is generally said to be a derivative of the verb dikeîn "to throw, cast, fling" (aorist only), presumably as a simplification of *dikskos, with a suffix -sk-. P. Chantraine is certain of this in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, but less confident in La formation des noms en grec ancien, where this etymology is followed by a question mark (p. 405). Clearly, if such a suffix existed in Greek, the evidence is meager (and the productivity of the diminutive suffix -isko- is not relevant). R. Beekes (Etymological Dictionary of Greek) suggests that the earlier form was *diks-, which together with dikeîn is of non-Indo-European substratal origin, citing Edzard Furnée, Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen (Mouton, 1972), p. 297.

First Known Use

1581, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing discus

• the discus

Kids Definition

discus

noun

dis·​cus ˈdis-kəs 

plural discuses

: a heavy disk that is hurled for distance in a track-and-field event

also : the event

Medical Definition

discus

noun

dis·​cus ˈdis-kəs 

plural disci -ˌkī  -kē 

: any of various rounded and flattened anatomical structures