beschreiben

Forms

beschreiben (class 1 strong, third-person singular present beschreibt, past tense beschrieb, past participle beschrieben, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German beschrīben (“to write down, record, depict”), formed with be- from schreiben.^[2][3][4] The same verb is Dutch beschrijven.^[5]

Old High German scrīban and its Germanic relatives (such as Old Saxon skrīƀan and Old English scrīfan (“to decree; to hear confession”), whence English shrive) were borrowed from Latin scrībō (“to write”), and took strong inflection in Germanic.^[2][6] Pfeifer thinks two borrowings likely: an earlier one in the sense “to order, decree”, as in the Old English verb, and a later one meaning “to write in Latin letters”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German beschrīben is first recorded in Hartmann's Erec (about 1185) and in charters from 1261, meaning “to write down, record, set down legally, describe, summon in writing”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Paul gives “to record, make notes about” as the first sense, as in Luther's des Gesetzes Werk sei beschrieben in ihrem Herzen (Romans 2:15); from it came, already in Middle High German, the usual modern sense “to put into words, depict”, in which the idea of writing has faded.^[7][5] With a different object, governed by be-, it means “to write on”: ein Blatt beschreiben.^[7][5] The negative unbeschreiblich belongs to the sense “depict”.^[7]

In Early New High German the verb also meant to register people or property for taxes,^[8] and Adelung records jemanden auf den Landtag beschreiben “to summon by letter” as Upper German.^[9] Geometry has used einen Kreis beschreiben since the 16th century; the sense was then extended to birds, stars and hands that trace a path, first in Lessing, perhaps after English describe.^[7][10]

Timeline

• c. 1185 – Middle High German beschrīben in Hartmann's Erec.^[3]
• 1261 – In Middle High German charters.^[3]
• 16th century – einen Kreis beschreiben in geometry.^[7]
• 1793 – Adelung records the Upper German sense “to summon in writing”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To write on, fill with writing: Er hat das ganze Heft beschrieben.^[10][1]
2. (computing) To write data to a storage medium: einen USB-Stick beschreiben.^[10][1]
3. To describe, render in words: Sie beschrieb der Polizei den Mann genau.^[10][1][4]
4. To trace a curved path or movement: Der Weg beschreibt eine Schleife um den See.^[10][1]
5. (biology) To describe a new species scientifically.^[1]

Word family

• Beschreibung
• unbeschreiblich
• Beschreiber

Related words

• schreiben
• English shrive

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1592
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 905
10. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag