Dissertating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Delivering an extended, formal written or spoken treatise on a subject ; holding forth at length in a learned, scholarly manner
2. Producing a long, systematic account of a topic in the style of an academic thesis ; expounding on a subject in detailed, erudite fashion
3. Writing or speaking at great length on a scholarly matter, setting out a thorough argument ; discoursing on a topic in a learned and thorough way

Etymology: "Dissertating" is the present participle of "dissertate," a verb whose first recorded use in English dates to 1766. It was borrowed from Latin "dissertatus," the past participle of "dissertare," meaning "to argue" or "to discuss." That Latin verb is a frequentative of "disserere," a form that repeats or intensifies the action, so the original sense carried the idea of thoroughly working over a subject. English adopted the Latin root with the verb-forming suffix "-ate" attached. The verb is a doublet of "dissert," a shorter form that came into English through the same Latin source, so the two words are siblings that took different routes into the language. "Dissertate" is also a back-formation from "dissertation," meaning English speakers worked backward from the noun, stripping off its ending to create a verb that did not exist in the older Latin-derived form.

Synonyms: discourse, expound, lecture, hold forth