descrever

Forms

descrever (first-person singular present descrevo, first-person singular preterite descrevi, past participle descrito)^[1] Houaiss records the 15th-century spelling descripuer.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēscrībō (“to copy; to draw, mark out; to describe”), first recorded in 1436.^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing.^[1]

The Latin verb is formed from dē- and scrībō (“to write”), the source of escrever.^[2][5][1] The same Latin verb gave Galician describir, Spanish describir, Catalan descriure, French décrire and Italian descrivere.^[1][6][7] The OLD notes that the manuscripts often confuse it with discrībō (“to divide, distribute”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to 1436 from the slips of the medieval Portuguese index, and Cunha puts it in the 15th century, with the sense of setting out or telling something in detail.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the verb had meant “to copy” and “to draw, trace” as well as “to describe in words”.^[5][8] Pereira's Thesouro (1697) glosses it with Latin describo and pingo “to paint”, and Bluteau defines it as making the description of a person or thing.^[9][10] Morais's first edition (1789) gives only the verbal sense, with examples such as describing a garden in verse; the 1813 edition adds “to trace”, as in tracing a circle.^[11][12]

The geometrical sense of a moving body that traces a line or curve, as the planets trace ellipses, is in the original Caldas Aulete, and Figueiredo (1899) also gives “to go over, travel through”.^[13][14] Houaiss adds a sense of linguistics, giving a systematic account of the structure of a language from a corpus.^[2] Wiktionary also records the use in taxonomy, introducing a new taxon to science.^[1]

Timeline

• 1436 – first record, from the medieval Portuguese index.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling descripuer.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro lists Descrever.^[9]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as making the description of a person or thing.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais's dictionary enters it as a transitive verb.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais adds the sense “to trace” (a circle).^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds “to go over, travel through”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To describe: to represent someone or something in speech or writing, as a whole or in detail; reflexive, to describe oneself: Ela descreveu-se como uma pessoa tímida.^[2][15][1]
2. To tell in detail, to narrate what happened: Descreveu-nos o acidente minuto a minuto.^[2][16]
3. To draw or trace a figure: descrever um triângulo.^[2][17]
4. Of a moving body, to follow a path of a given shape: O avião descreveu um círculo sobre a praia.^[2][18][1]
5. (linguistics) To give a systematic account of the structure of a language or dialect, based on a corpus.^[2][13]
6. (taxonomy) To introduce a new taxon to science.^[1]

Related words

• descrição
• descrito
• descritor
• escrever
• Latin dēscrībō
• Spanish describir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. descrever
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. descrever
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. descrever
5. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dēscrībō
6. ^ 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. describir
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. décrire
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. descrever
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. descrever
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 402
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 565
13. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. descrever
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 410
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. descrever
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. descrever
17. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. descrever
18. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. descrever