Etymologically
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describe

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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

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