excursion

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin excursio (“a running out, an inroad, invasion, a setting out, beginning of a speech”), from excurrere (“to run out”), from ex (“out”) + currere (“to run”).

noun

1. A brief recreational trip; a journey out of the usual way.
   While driving home I took an excursion and saw some deer.
   Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres. 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
2. A wandering from the main subject: a digression.
3. (aviation) An occurrence where an aircraft runs off the end or side of a runway or taxiway, usually during takeoff, landing, or taxi.
4. (phonetics) A deviation in pitch, for example in the syllables of enthusiastic speech.

verb

1. (intransitive) To go on a recreational trip or excursion.
   1825, Charles Lamb, Letter to Mr. Wordsworth, 6 April, 1825, in The Works of Charles Lamb, Volume I, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851, p. 249, https://books.google.ca/books?id=ypdNAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Yesterday I excursioned twenty miles; to-day I write a few letters.
   After breakfast, that next morning in Chamonix, we went out in the yard and watched the gangs of excursioning tourists arriving and departing with their mules and guides and porters […] 1880, Mark Twain, chapter 49, in A Tramp Abroad