decursus

Decursus is a Latin noun meaning "course" or "progress" and is used in scholarly writing to denote the path or progression of something through time. In medical and historical contexts, it refers to the natural history, development, or sequence of events of a condition, phenomenon, or narrative.

Etymology: The term derives from Latin decursus, related to decurrere or currere, with the sense of moving forward along a path. In English, it appears primarily as a loanword in precise phrases such as decursus morbi or decursus temporum, rather than as a common everyday term.

Usage: In medicine, decursus morbi describes the chronological sequence of signs and symptoms as a disease unfolds, including onset, change over time, and resolution. In history, philology, and literature, decursus can denote the unfolding of events or the progression of a narrative across time. The term is uncommon outside of Latin-quoted passages or specialized scholarly writing, where it is often translated as "course" or "progression" when rendered in English.

Related concepts include the natural history of a disease, disease progression, trajectory, and the sequence of events in a historical narrative.