Discussed

How to spell discussed

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce discussed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does discussed mean?

1. verbTalked or wrote about a topic in detail, considering it from different angles.

Discussed in a sentence

• The committee discussed the budget for over an hour.

• We discussed the holiday plans over dinner last night.

Where does discussed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb discuss, which comes from the Latin discutere, formed from dis- meaning 'apart' and quatere meaning 'to shake' or 'to strike'. The literal sense was therefore 'to shake apart' or 'to dash to pieces', and the past participle discussus gave the English spelling its doubled s. In late Latin the meaning drifted from physically scattering something to mentally taking an argument apart, that is, examining and investigating it. English borrowed the word in the 1300s, at first carrying senses like 'to disperse' or 'to dispel', before settling into the modern meaning of talking a matter over. The same quatere root survives in relatives such as 'percussion' and 'concussion', both of which still keep the original idea of striking. The spelling trap lies in that doubled s plus the -ed ending, and in the fact that spoken quickly it sounds almost identical to 'disgust'.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• cuss (from Latin quatere/cutere: to shake, strike)
• -ed (past tense)