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

Joseph Brown of Mansfield came in third in discus in the U.S Olympic Team Trials. —Tasha Tsiaperas, Axios, 16 July 2024

The junior ended his strong season at states by winning a 3A gold medal in discus with a new personal best distance of 181-2. Michael Heinemann, Mt. Hebron, junior Heinemann excelled at counties with top-three finishes in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. —Jacob Steinberg, Baltimore Sun, 11 July 2024

Other finals Saturday included the men's and women's 20K race walks, men's discus, women's long jump, women's shot put and women's 10,000. —David K. Li, NBC News, 30 June 2024

Then comes a synthetic track and a turf infield for events such as discus and javelin. —David Wharton, Los Angeles Times, 27 June 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