descriptivo

Forms

descriptivo (feminine descriptiva, masculine plural descriptivos, feminine plural descriptivas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēscrīptīvus (“containing a description”), a learned word.^[2][3][4] The Latin adjective is late: Lewis and Short cite it from Boethius and the rhetorician Fortunatianus.^[5] It is formed from dēscrībō (“to describe”),^[3] which is dē- with scrībō (“to write”).^[1] Echegaray instead derived the Spanish adjective from the noun descripción.^[6]

The Latin verb gave describir, recorded from 1438, and the noun from 1580.^[7] The same Latin adjective is the source of French descriptif and English descriptive.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the 1732 Diccionario de Autoridades, which defines it as “what describes”, gives definición descriptiva as its example, and the Latin descriptivus as its equivalent.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Terreros gave it beside the synonym descriptorio and applied it to maps, speeches and coasts.^[9] The Academy added narración descriptiva in 1817, and Domínguez in 1846 also listed cuadro descriptivo and anatomía descriptiva.^[10][11] Alemany in 1917 was the first of these dictionaries to record geometría descriptiva as a term of mathematics.^[12] A Havana text of 1834 has the spelling descrictivo for a descriptive poem, and by 1962 a Chilean scholar called dialectology a merely descriptive stage of research.^[13] The DLE's definition, “that describes”, goes back to the Academy's 1884 edition.^[14][2]

Timeline

• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records it.^[8]
• 1786 – Terreros gives it with the synonym descriptorio.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the example narración descriptiva.^[10]
• 1834 – the first record from the Americas, in Havana, spelt descrictivo.^[13]
• 1846 – Domínguez lists anatomía descriptiva.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as “said of what describes”.^[14]
• 1917 – Alemany records geometría descriptiva.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. descriptive: that describes (describir) or serves to describe: un informe descriptivo.^{[2][15][16][1]}

Related words

• descripción
• descriptible
• escribir
• Latin dēscrīptīvus

Usage notes

The DLE lists the phrases geometría descriptiva and gramática descriptiva.^[2][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. descriptivo
3. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 722
4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. descriptivo
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 718
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escribir
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 143
9. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 632
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 299
11. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 574
12. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 557
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. descrictivo
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 361
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. descriptivo
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. descriptivo
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. descriptivo