Noun

(uncountable, archaic) Verbal exchange, conversation.

* 1847 , , (Jane Eyre), Chapter XVIII

Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals.

(uncountable) Expression in words, either speech or writing.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author= , title=Pixels or Perish , volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine= citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse . Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

(countable) A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.

The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

(countable) Any rational expression, reason.

* South

difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason

* Shakespeare

Sure he that made us with such large discourse , / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and godlike reason / To rust in us unused.

(social sciences, countable) An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after ).

* 2007 , Christine L. Marran, Poison Woman: Figuring Female Transgression in Modern Japanese Culture (page 137)

Furthermore, it should be recalled from the previous chapter that criminological discourse of the 1930s deemed every woman a potential criminal, implicitly including the domestic woman.

* 2008 , Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies (page 308)

But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

(obsolete) Dealing; transaction.

* Beaumont and Fletcher

Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.

Noun

(en-noun)

(philosophy) Scientific knowledge; a principled system of understanding; sometimes contrasted with empiricism.

(specifically Ancient Greek philosophy) know-how; compare techne.

(specifically Foucaultian philosophy) The fundamental body of ideas and collective presuppositions that defines the nature and sets the bounds of what is accepted as true knowledge in a given epistemic epoch.

* 1997 : Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault , pages 65^{1} and 71^{2} (Totem Books, Icon Books; ISBN 1840460865)

^{1} An 'episteme'''''' is the “underground” grid or network which allows thought to organize itself. Each historical period has its own ' episteme . It limits the totality of experience, knowledge and truth, and governs each science in one period.

^{2} Classical representation no longer needs a subject like royalty. It can only be made visible by its invisibility — by appearing in the mirror of representation'. The true subject is never to be found in the table — or painting — as a historical subject of life, labour and language. The classical '''episteme''' did not isolate a specific domain proper to man.
'''Axiom''': In the classical ' episteme the subject is bound to escape its own representation.