descrizione

Forms

descrizione f (plural descrizioni)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin dēscrīptiō (“copy; representation, description”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin noun is formed from dēscrībō (“to copy out; to describe”) with the suffix -tiō, through its past participle dēscrīptus.^[7][1][8][9] The Latin verb is scrībō (“to write”) with the prefix dē-.^[10][11] In Italian the noun stands beside the verb descrivere, and Wiktionary also analyses it as that verb with the suffix -zione.^[2][1]

The DEI notes that all the Italian senses except “enrolment” already occur in the Medieval Latin of Italy between the 6th and 11th centuries, and that in the Roman imperial period the rhetorical sense, the Latin counterpart of the rhetorical ekphrasis, gained importance through the Second Sophistic.^[12] Latin often wrote this word with dis- for its prefix, and Old Italian had forms such as Old Italian discrizione beside descrizione.^[7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo's Composizione del mondo (Arezzo, 1282), where it is the listing of enough particulars to make a thing known.^[13][9] DELI dates the general sense “act or result of describing” to the early 14th century, in Guido da Pisa, who writes of the death of Turnus “according to Virgil's description in his book of the Aeneid” (secondo la discrizione di Virgilio).^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for a short statement of a thing's parts, for the entering of data in a text, for a written text, and for a census of a population.^[13] The DEI dates a 14th-century use for the public register and for the line a heavenly body traces, and a 15th-century use for enrolment in an army.^[12] These registry senses are now archaic, and “tracing a line or figure”, as in the description of a circle, is uncommon.^{[4][10][11][14]}

In philosophy a description marks a thing off from others by its accidental features, as opposed to a definition, which states its essence.^[8] Tommaseo treated description as a figure of rhetoric that the orator should use sparingly.^[15] In literary analysis it is the pause in a narrative to dwell on a landscape or setting.^[11] Logic has descrizione definita and descrizione indefinita.^[4]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses descrizione.^[13][9]
• Early 14th century – Guido da Pisa writes of Virgil's discrizione of the death of Turnus.^[2][8]
• 14th century – The word is used for the public register and in astronomy.^[12]
• 15th century – It is used for enrolment in an army.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. description: describing something, and the words used to describe it: La guida dà una descrizione minuziosa del castello.^{[4][10][11][14]}
2. (literature) A passage that interrupts the action to depict a setting or scene.^[11]
3. (uncommon) The tracing of a line or figure, such as a curve or circle.^{[4][11][14][1]}
4. (archaic) Entry in a register; a census; enrolment.^[4][10][14]

Word family

• descrizioncina
• descrizioncella

Related words

• descrivere
• descrittivo
• Latin dēscrīptiō

Usage notes

Discrizione is an old variant.^[9][13] The diminutives are descrizioncina and descrizioncella.^[14][9] Wiktionary also records an archaic Roman descrizione “discretion”, invariable in the plural, which it derives from Latin discretionem with the old outcome des- of Latin dis- and the raising of -e- before the stress.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
6. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1393
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1259
13. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET