décrire

Forms

décrire^[1] Old French descrire and descrivre.^[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēscrībō (“to trace, draw, describe, set out”), reshaped after écrire.^[4][5][6][7] The Latin verb is formed from dē- and scrībō (“to write”).^[5][2][3] Its range was wider than the French verb's: “copy”, “draw, trace”, “relate, depict” and “mark out”, and in Medieval Latin also “take a census” and “assess a town for tax”.^[5] Wiktionary treats the Old French verb descrivre as inherited.^[1]

Compare Occitan descriure, Catalan descriure, Spanish describir, Portuguese descrever and Italian descrivere.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1119 in Philippe de Thaon's Comput, meaning to set down or describe in writing.^[4] From its first texts it was limited to describing in writing or speech.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense of representing something in words, written or spoken, has stayed the main one and has taken on many shades.^[5] The physical sense “to trace a curved line” appears in Amyot in 1559.^[4][5] From it come the geometry sense, drawing a curve or ellipse, and the use for a body that moves along a curve, as a planet describing its orbit.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 1119 – First record, “to represent in writing”, in Philippe de Thaon.^[4]
• c. 1165 – Description is borrowed from Latin as its action noun.^[5]
• 1559 – Amyot uses it for tracing a curved line.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To describe, to represent something or someone as a whole in writing or speech: décrire une ville à un ami.^[9][4][8]
2. To trace or follow a curved line: la rivière décrit une boucle.^[9][4]
3. (geometry) To draw a figure: décrire un cercle.^[3][8]

Related words

• écrire
• description
• indescriptible
• Latin dēscrībō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 334b
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert