An archaic or obsolete form meaning to discourage or to run away from.
From Old French 'discourre,' related to 'discours' (discourse). This word is rarely used in modern English and survives mainly in historical texts.
This nearly-extinct word shows how English constantly sheds old vocabulary—'discour' was useful once but was replaced by more common words like 'discourage,' so it faded into obscurity like thousands of other medieval words.
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