describe

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɪˈskraɪb/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English descriven,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French descrivre, descrire (13th century),^[3][2] and directly from Latin dēscrībere (“to write down, copy; sketch, represent”),^[3][2][4] from dē “down” and scrībere “to write”,^[3][2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *skribh- (“to cut”).^[3] The later form describen, from about 1425, replaced descriven in an effort to Latinize the spelling.^[2][3] It is related to scribe and description.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before 1250 in Barnhart, as descriven in the Ancrene Riwle;^[2] “to interpret, explain”, a sense now obsolete, in the mid-13th century in Etymonline.^[3] To represent orally or in writing: about 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

To form or trace by motion is from the late 14th century, as of a curve described by a moving point,^[3] and to outline or delineate from about 1400.^[3] The Latin-style spelling dates from about 1450.^[3] In the 16th century it meant to write down or set forth in writing (1526) and to enrol in a register (1535), both now obsolete,^[6] and to set forth in words by reference to qualities from 1513.^[6] Description is from about 1380, in Chaucer's House of Fame,^[2] and descriptive from 1751, in Johnson's Rambler.^[2]

Timeline

• a. 1250 – descriven.^[2]
• c. 1300 – to represent in words.^[3]
• c. 1380 – description.^[2]
• late 14th century – to trace by motion.^[3]
• c. 1450 – Latinized spelling.^[3]
• 1751 – descriptive.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To give an account of in speech or writing.
2. To convey an idea of; to characterize: he described her as kind.
3. To trace or draw the outline of: the ball described an arc.

Word family

• describable
• describer
• describability
• describably
• misdescribe
• overdescribe
• predescribe
• redescribe

Related words

• description
• descriptive
• descriptivist
• descriptor
• scribe
• inscribe
• prescribe
• subscribe

Usage notes

Describe, narrate, recount, relate and report all mean to tell the facts or details of something in speech or writing; describe stresses giving a picture of it.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin