Etymograph

English

describe

Describe comes from Old French descrivre ‘to describe’, and goes back to Latin dēscrībō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēscrībō1‘to copy off’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400descrivre1‘to describe’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500descriven1
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1611describe1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English describe
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Passed through the land, and described it by cities…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēscrībōWiktionary, English describe‘to copy off’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400descrivreWiktionary, English describe‘to describe’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500descrivenWiktionary, English describe
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1611describeWiktionary, English describe. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Passed through the land, and described it by cities…”

A compound of dē ‘off’ + scrībō ‘write’

Latin dē ‘off’

Proto-Indo-European *(s)kréybʰeti

Proto-Italic *skreiβō ‘to carve’

Latin scrībō ‘write’

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with describe, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Latin dēscrībō ‘to copy off, transcribe, sketch off, describe in painting or writing’

4 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To represent in words.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “describe”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin dēscrībō / describe