Exhibit展品
describe
/dɪˈskraɪb/
What is being written down?被写下来的是什么？
Today此刻
To give an account of something in words.用语言说明一件事。
Historical历史形态
Take it apart拆开来看
Latin de- plus scribere. Historical morphology. English borrowed the finished verb.拉丁语 de- 加 scribere。历史形态。英语借入的是完成的动词。
Travel through time穿过时间
Latin拉丁语
scribere
to write写
Latin拉丁语
describere
to write down, to mark out写下来，标出来
English英语
describe
to give an account加以说明
How the meaning moved意义如何移动
01 · Latin01 · 拉丁语
to write down or mark out写下来或标出来
02 · English02 · 英语
to picture or represent描绘或表现
03 · English03 · 英语
to give an account in words用语言说明
Story故事
Writing it down把它写下来
Latin scribere is to write. Describere writes something down, copies it, or marks it out. The de- can mean down or from. The picture is a hand making a line that stands for a thing. English describe keeps the account and loses the ink. To describe a face is no longer to draw it, though the older sense of marking out still ghosts the word.
Subscribe, in the same gallery, writes underneath: a signature, then a promise to pay. Manuscript says the writing was done by hand at all. Describe is the plainest of the three. It is the act of setting something into words, with the writing still visible in the build.
The family is Latin. English borrowed the verbs already formed.
拉丁语 scribere 是写。Describere 把一件东西写下来、抄下来，或标出来。de- 可以是向下或从……。图画是一只手画出一条代表事物的线。英语 describe 留下了说明，失去了墨水。描述一张脸不再是把它画出来，尽管“标出来”的旧意思仍在词里作祟。
同一展厅里的 subscribe 写在下面：一个签名，然后是付钱的承诺。manuscript 说这书写到底是手做的。describe 是三者里最平的。它是把一件东西放进语言的行为，书写仍在构造里看得见。
这一族是拉丁语。英语借入这些动词时，它们已经成形。
Keep wandering继续漫游
Research notes研究笔记
Confidence · High把握 · 高
The outline is the ordinary account in historical dictionaries.轮廓与历史词典里的通行说法一致。
Sources出处
An outline for the visitor, not a critical edition.给访客的纲要，不是校勘本。