Descriptio

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An obsolete term for a detailed written or spoken account of something ; or a Latin word meaning "description" or "representing something in words" ; or a designation applied to the act of portraying through words or writing
2. Refers to an archaic English or Latin expression denoting a representation or account of something in words ; can also stand for the process or result of describing ; sometimes used historically for a list or inventory
3. An old-fashioned or Latin term that means the act, result, or product of describing something in detail with words ; also used for a depiction, account, or written record

Etymology: Latin "descriptio" came from "describere," meaning "to write down" or "to copy out," built from "de-" (down) and "scribere" (to write). The sense it carried was literal: to draw a line or outline of something, then to set it down in writing. From that root it came to mean a written account or portrait, and in medieval and Renaissance Latin it also named a survey or register of property, which is why the word could stand for an inventory. English took the word from Latin, and it appears in the language mainly as a learned borrowing that stayed close to its Latin sense. Its older roots are visible in the English verb "describe," which entered the language in the late Middle Ages from the same Latin verb. Writers used "description" for both the act of describing and the finished account it produced, so the noun covers both process and result.

Synonyms: description, depiction, portrayal, account, narrative

Antonyms: concealment, suppression, hiding, obscuration, obfuscation