descriptiveadj.n.
/dᵻˈskrɪptɪv/, U.S. /dəˈskrɪptɪv/, /diˈskrɪptɪv/ A. adj.
1.
a. Serving or seeking to describe something or someone; of, characterized by, or involving description. Also more narrowly, esp. of a word or phrase: that describes something or someone well or vividly; expressive, evocative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > narration > description or act of describing > [adjective]
describinga1586
descriptory1586
descriptionate1593
descriptive1593
particular1607
diegematical1624
1593 J. Napier Plaine Discouery Reuelation St. Iohn sig. A6v And if any chapter is partly descriptiue, partly propheticall, then where it is propheticall, there are three columnes.
1646 J. Goodwin Anapologesiates Antapologias 173 Titles..which expresse the subject matter handled respectively in them [sc. tracts or books], whether handled in an astructive and assertive way, or in a destructive and confutatory way, or in an explicatorie or descriptive way onely.
1647 R. Vines Authours, Nature, & Danger of Hæresie 29 Whether the word damnable be restrictive to some hæresies, as implying that there are some that are not damnable; or whether it be descriptive, as describing what hæresies are (in sue genere) in general.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 94. ⁋1 The sound of some emphatical and descriptive words.
1799 W. Taylor in J. W. Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) I. 243 The descriptive parts of this idyll are capital—are unsurpassable.
1820 W. Hazlitt Lect. Dramatic Lit. 141 They are lyrical and descriptive poets of the first order.
1866 Contemp. Rev. 2 548 The merely descriptive writer, the literalist, though he write in verse, is not a poet at all.
1882 A. W. Ward Dickens i. 18 A descriptive power that seemed to lose sight of nothing.
1935 S. Spender Destructive Elem. i. 26 James's earlier books are much fuller of descriptive writing and rapportage than the later books.
1946 Sat. Evening Post 31 Aug. 72/2 ‘Hassle’ is a gorgeously descriptive word.
1971 C. R. Metcalfe Anat. Monocotyledons V. 21 For descriptive purposes such cells have been termed secretory cells.
2006 Georgia Hist. Q. 90 576 In one descriptive passage Dickson relates the Standard's captain taking the wheel in the midst of a storm dressed only in his drawers and a shirt.
b. With of and complement. That describes the specified thing or person. Now esp., of a word or phrase: that describes the specified concept accurately or vividly.
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1652 A. Burgess Spiritual Refining i. viii. 40 All these Texts and the like, are only indicative, and descriptive of those subjects who are godly in their Properties.
a1729 J. Rogers 19 Serm. (1735) vi. 114 The Terms are manifestly general, and not only inclusive, but even descriptive of the Elect.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature II. 176 Circumstances descriptive of similar connections.
1827 P. P. King Voy. Adventure & Beagle I. 36 I do think the name of ‘steamer’ much more appropriate and descriptive of the swift paddling motion of these birds, than that of ‘race-horse’.
1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 71 A name sufficiently descriptive of its construction.
1926 J. Cowan Trav. N.Z. II. p. i This volume..is descriptive of the varied landscapes of the South Island.
1989 T. Clancy Clear & Present Danger xxvii. 588 It was called a fire-sack, a term borrowed from the Soviet Army, and perfectly descriptive of its function.
2002 J. Cunliffe Encycl. Dog Breeds (new ed.) 34/3 A bull terrier has a typically egg-shaped head, the very word ‘egg’ being descriptive of the way the terrier's head tapers in towards the nose.
2.
a. That describes the way something is, rather than expressing judgement, presenting ideals, prescribing rules, etc.; that describes something or someone in an objective and non-judgemental way.
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1797 Trans. Royal Irish Acad. 6 84 But Goldsmith is not a didactic—he is a descriptive poet.
1826 Reg. Deb. Congr. 21 Feb. 1423 Some call them squatters, which, so far as it is intended, as either descriptive or derogatory, was entirely unjustifiable.
1845 Athenæum 20 Sept. 921/3 This we say not by way of censure, but in a sense purely descriptive.
1897 Outlook 1 Jan. 187/1 His volume is..simply an introduction to theology; a book of definitions rather than of opinions; descriptive rather than dogmatic.
1953 E. R. Wasserman Finer Tone v. 163 At most, his poetry is descriptive and suppositive, not prescriptive.
1981 J. Monaco How to read Film (rev. ed.) iv. 310 The prescriptive theorist is concerned with what film should be, the descriptive theorist only with what film is.
2012 Kronos 38 288 The shift from a descriptive to an idealist and normative anthropology.
b. spec. That describes the way language is used, without prescribing rules or referring to norms of correctness. Contrasted with prescriptive, normative.Sometimes overlapping with sense A. 3b.
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1862 W. D. Whitney in Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. (1863) 7 394 A phonetical science which delighted itself with subtleties, and of which the strong tendency was to grow from descriptive into prescriptive.
1895 Inlander Nov. 58 The choice lay between two methods of classification [of slang],—normative and descriptive.
1933 O. Jespersen Essent. Eng. Gram. i. 19 Descriptive grammar..aims at finding out what is actually said and written by the speakers of the language investigated.
1962 U. Weinreich in F. W. Householder & S. Saporta Probl. Lexicogr. 43 Lexicography as a descriptive (rather than a normative) discipline must also take the criterion of interpersonality seriously.
1993 N.Y. Times Mag. 22 Aug. 14/2 After primly resisting the onslaught of American common usage on looks like, the BBC goes squishily descriptive on beginning sentences with conjunctions.
2009 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 23 May 8 A language with as many irregularities as English needs a descriptive grammar. No one learns a first language by learning the rules and then applying them.
c. Philosophy and Linguistics. Designating that aspect of the meaning of an utterance which relates purely to the presentation of facts, rather than to the expression of attitudes, the effecting of an action, etc.; esp. in descriptive meaning. Also: of or relating to such meaning; (of a word or utterance) having (only) such meaning. Cf. emotive adj. 3, prescriptive adj. 1c, performative adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > semantics > meaning or signification > [adjective] > having specific meaning
sensed1577
descriptive1944
1944 C. L. Stevenson Ethics & Lang. ix. 210 In any ‘persuasive definition’ the term defined is a familiar one, whose meaning is both descriptive and strongly emotive.
1963 R. M. Hare in Proc. Brit. Acad. 49 116 The fundamental distinction is not that between descriptive and evaluative terms, but that between the descriptive and evaluative meaning which a single term may have in a certain context.
1981 J. Lyons Lang. & Linguistics v. 148 Lexemes can be said to be completely synonymous..if and only if they have the same descriptive, expressive and social meaning.
1999 M. Timmons Morality without Found. iv. 154 Moral sentences lack descriptive content.
2001 I. Fónagy Langs. within Lang. vii. 197 Hello has a conative function, signalling the presence of the speaker and his intention to contact the hearer, but no descriptive meaning.
3.
a. Esp. of a science or scientist: concerned solely or principally with description and classification as opposed to theory, speculation, or explanation.
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1807 Philos. Mag. 28 369 To descriptive botany belong his history of the oily plants [etc.].
1832 Edinb. New Philos. Jrnl. 12 215 Natural history..is not a speculative, but a positive and descriptive science.
1871 N. Amer. Rev. July 77 The debate is between the theologian and descriptive naturalist on one side..and on the other side the physical naturalist, physiologist, or theoretical biologist.
1885 W. James in Mind 10 28 Our inquiry is a chapter in descriptive psychology—hardly anything more.
1943 M. Farber Found. Phenomenol. vii. 216 The distinctions [were] a matter of descriptive analysis.
1971 Nature 2 July 70/3 He might well have become an outstanding descriptive biologist.
2001 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 34 287 The descriptive science that Goethe practised was..geognosy, in contrast to geology, a term associated with speculative theorizing.
b. Linguistics. Designating a branch of linguistics concerned with describing the structure of a language at a given time, without reference to other languages or other historical phases; of or relating to this branch of linguistics. Cf. synchronic adj., structural linguistics n. at structural adj. Compounds.Contrasted with historical and comparative linguistics, and also (especially in later use) with theoretical linguistics.Sometimes overlapping with sense A. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > [adjective] > descriptive
descriptive1888
descriptivist1930
descriptivistic1950
the mind > language > linguistics > [noun] > descriptivism
descriptive1927
descriptivism1949
1888 H. A. Strong tr. H. Paul Princ. Hist. Lang. i. 2 Descriptive Grammar has to register the grammatical forms and grammatical conditions in use at a given date within a certain community speaking a common language.
1927 Mod. Philol. Nov. 218 Today descriptive linguistics is thus recognized beside historical, or rather as precedent to it.
1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. ii. 19 The European linguist who best formulated the methodology of descriptive linguistics..was Ferdinand de Saussure.
1977 D. J. Hays in P. J. Hopper Stud. Descriptive & Hist. Linguistics v. 102 Descriptive linguists thus lose the challenge of abstract definition and metalinguality.
1990 Eng. World-Wide 11 203 Our approach will be primarily descriptive, secondarily comparative, to present synchronic quantitative statements for each feature in Americana speech.
4. Grammar. Designating various modifying words, phrases, or clauses which have the function of describing; designating a construction containing such a modifier; spec.
a. Designating a relative clause which gives additional information about, rather than identifying, the antecedent of the relative (e.g. the relative clause in my mother, who is an excellent baker, made my wedding cake as distinct from the relative clause in the man who phoned earlier is waiting in reception). Now rare.The usual term is now non-defining or non-restrictive.
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1849 P. Bullions Analyt. & Pract. Gram. Eng. Lang. 52 That is used in restrictive, more commonly than in descriptive clauses.
1903 W. G. Hale & C. D. Buck Latin Gram. iv. 260 Relative Clauses,..descriptive..that is, telling what kind of person or thing is meant (also called ‘characterizing’ clauses).
1919 D. G. Crawford Study of Eng. xvi. 117 Descriptive relative clauses should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.
2013 D. J. A. Clines in D. G. Burke et al. King James Version at 400 238 Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days... The insertion of a comma after ‘man’..sadly changes the clause that follows from a defining to a descriptive clause.
b. Designating a genitive construction, or related construction with of, in which the genitive word or of-phrase is used to describe or give some characteristic of the modified noun (e.g. ladies' shoes, a doll's house, a thing of no importance); (also) designating the genitive word or of-phrase in such a construction.In quot. 1849 also designating an ablative with a similar function.
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1849 G. Woods tr. I. N. Madvig Lat. Gram. §287 The descriptive genitive and ablative are both generally subjoined to an indefinite appellative noun (as we also say in English, ‘Hannibal, a general of great ability,’ not, ‘Hannibal, of great ability’).
1898 A. Harkness Compl. Lat. Gram. iv. 212 A Descriptive Genitive, or Genitive of Characteristic:..Vir māgnae auctōritātis, a man of great influence.
1954 P. M. Roberts Understanding Gram. ii. 48 A car′penter's hammer (‘a hammer customarily used by carpenters’—descriptive genitive).
1984 R. Huddleston Introd. Gram. Eng. 270 Ed's stamp collection would typically be classified as a ‘genitive of possession’;..an old people's home and a king of considerable intelligence as ‘descriptive genitives’.
2008 B. Szmrecsanyi & L. Hinrichs in T. Nevalainen et al. Dynamics Ling. Variation 295 Descriptive genitives (men's suits, bird's nest)..frequently form an idiomatic unit.
c. Designating an adjective used to describe the referent of, rather than restrict the application of, the word or phrase which it modifies (e.g. blue and careful as distinct from few and my).The term is now largely disused in grammars, as words such as few and my are usually referred to as determiners.
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1866 Bullions' Analyt. & Pract. Gram. Eng. Lang. (2nd. Canad. ed.) 44 The most useful general classification [of adjectives] is, perhaps, into the two following:—..Qualifying or descriptive... Limiting or defining.
1895 Sheldon's Adv. Lang. Lessons lxxxviii. 128 Adjectives like English, dim, religious,..that qualify or describe a noun or pronoun, are called qualifying or descriptive adjectives. Adjectives like an, the, and this, that limit the meaning of a noun or pronoun, are called limiting adjectives.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. xii. 202 The adjectives are divided into two classes, descriptive and limiting, by the circumstance that when adjectives of both these classes occur in a phrase, the limiting adjective precedes and modifies the group of descriptive adjective plus noun.
1954 P. M. Roberts Understanding Gram. iv. 93 Descriptive adjectives occur in three main sentence positions.
2001 L. Villemaire & D. Villemaire Gram. & Writing Skills for Health Professional iv. 84 In a group of adjectives that contains a limiting adjective and one or more descriptive adjectives that all modify the same noun, place the limiting adjective first.
5. Chess. Designating a system for recording moves in which each square on the board is represented by a code starting with an abbreviation for the name of a piece. Chiefly in descriptive notation. Cf. algebraic adj. 3.Each square is given two codes, one from white's point of view and the other from black's point of view. For example, the square on which the white queen is placed at the beginning of the game is called ‘Q1’ with reference to white, and ‘Q8’ with reference to black; the square immediately to the left of this (from white's perspective), occupied by a bishop at the beginning of the game, is called ‘QB1’ with reference to white and ‘QB8’ with reference to black.Descriptive notation is no longer an officially recognized system.
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1863 G. Allen in tr. T. von Heydebrand und der Lasa Philidor in Life Philidor (new ed.) 128 (note) I do myself prefer Walker's to any other form of descriptive notation, as being the most compendious reproduction of the real language of Chess-players over the board.
1913 H. J. R. Murray Hist. Chess ii. iii. 469 A literal or algebraic notation was also used in Europe in the mediaeval period. Like the descriptive notation, its use would appear to have been borrowed from Muslim players.
1955 Chess (‘Know the Game’ Series) 15/1 The British or descriptive system.
1984 Oxf. Compan. Chess 89/1 Descriptive notation, sometimes called Anglo-Iberian or Anglo-American notation. This abbreviated form of a verbal description is nearest to the way in which a move would be described if notation did not exist.
2000 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 7 Oct. 54 The Birmingham Post has been in existence for over 100 years and has always put its games in the descriptive notation.
6. Cultural Anthropology. In Lewis H. Morgan's terminology: designating a system in which a kinship term (such as mother or sister) is applied to only one type of relative.Opposed to classificatory (classificatory adj. 2) in which the same term may denote several types of relationships.
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society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > [adjective] > relating to system of kinship terms
descriptive1866
classificatory1870
1866 L. H. Morgan in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1865–8 (1868) 7 438 It may be premised that all of the systems of consanguinity and affinity..resolve themselves into two radically distinct forms, of which one will be called the descriptive, and the other the classificatory.
1871 L. H. Morgan Syst. Consanguinity & Affinity Human Family ii. 16 Our own system of relationship... was originally strictly descriptive.
1903 Man 3 174 The Toda system is losing its purely classificatory character, and is approaching the descriptive stage.
1981 I. Langham Building Brit. Social Anthropol. i. 7 In practice..it is difficult for the distinction to be rigidly sustained. Some so-called ‘descriptive’ terminologies have classificatory aspects.
2004 K. N. Dash Invit. Social & Cultural Anthropol. v. 92 The descriptive term of kinship emphasises the speaker's exact relation towards a particular person... For example, ‘father’ in English language is a descriptive term.
B. n.
1. A word or phrase used to describe something or someone; a descriptive term.
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1809 T. Jones Hist. County Brecknock II. ii. 483 Pistyll is a spout..and Rhaiadr is a cataract... Pistyll Rhaiadr..is..an attempt to reconcile contradictory descriptives.
1866 J. T. Spencer Eng. Gram. (new ed.) 13 A word used to describe a being, place, or thing, is a Descriptive. Examples.—A wise man. A large village. A small table.
1960 Kiplinger Mag. Dec. 6/1 It's..illegal to call synthetics ‘precious stones’, ‘precious jewels’ or ‘gems’, but fast-talking salesmen may slip in these descriptives as part of their pitch.
2013 N.Y. Mag. 17 June 16/1 Boring. Uninspiring. Forgettable. Those were the dismissive descriptives hung on Bill Thompson in 2009.
2. Philosophy and Linguistics. An utterance which has (only) descriptive meaning. Opposed to performative n. Cf. sense A. 2c, constative n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > [noun] > a speech act or fact of being a speech act
descriptive1952
illocution1955
locution1955
performative1955
performatory1955
perlocution1955
performativeness1960
performativity1970
1952 J. L. Austin MS Lect. Notes: Words & Deeds (Bodl. Eng. Misc. c. 395) f. 143 Slide to ‘descriptives’.
1962 J. L. Austin et al. How to do Things with Words vi. 78 There seem to be clear cases where the very same formula seems sometimes to be an explicit performative and sometimes to be a descriptive, and may even trade on this ambivalence: for example, ‘I approve’ and ‘I agree.’
1989 G. Bennington in L. Waters & W. Godzich Reading De Man Reading 219 ‘Il est nécessaire’ performs what it enunciates just as much, and just as little, as does ‘il est juste’: both are descriptives and can be the object of assent or disagreement.
2005 R. G. Millikan Language ix. 180 Many performative utterances,..when viewed incorrectly as simple present-tense descriptives,..are puzzling.
Compounds
descriptive geometry n. [after French géométrie descriptive ( G. Monge Géométrie descriptive (1789)] Mathematics the branch of geometry concerned with the study of two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects, esp. as a means of using the former to study the latter.
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1800 Crit. Rev. 29 App. 515 M. Monge has published his lectures on descriptive geometry, which depend much on the plates.
1913 G. F. Blessing & L. A. Darling Elem. Descr. Geom. i. 1 The practical value of descriptive geometry lies in the knowledge gained in solving graphical problems which arise in engineering and architecture, and in making and reading working drawings.
2004 I. K. Fischer in ACSM Bull. No. 208. 48/2 With my background in descriptive geometry, the three-dimensional viewpoint was much more meaningful..than the geodetically conventional two-dimensional.
descriptive fallacy n. (in or with reference to the philosophy of J. L. Austin) the fallacy that all statements can be understood purely in terms of their descriptive meaning (see sense A. 2c).
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1946 J. L. Austin in Proc. Aristotelian Soc. Suppl. 20 174 To suppose that ‘I know’ is a descriptive phrase, is only one example of the descriptive fallacy, so common in philosophy... Utterance of obvious ritual phrases, in the appropriate circumstances, is not describing the action we are doing, but doing it.
2005 M. Duffy How Lang., Ritual & Sacraments Work i. 77 A speech act is not merely a true or false report as the Descriptive Fallacy would have it.
descriptive statistic n. a statistical fact or piece of data derived directly from and relating to a particular sample or data set, as opposed to one which has been inferred for an entire population. Cf. descriptive statistics n. 2.
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1891 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 54 721 The author deals concisely with such questions as the nature of official statistics..and the modes of classification of descriptive statistics.
1962 Econ. Jrnl. 72 30 The ratio is here used solely as a descriptive statistic, but it is still useful for purposes of comparison.
2014 I. Scott & D. Mazhindu Statistics for Healthcare Professionals (ed. 2) vi. 44 In this example the researcher is asking you to summarize your day-to-day exercise level and provide a descriptive statistic.
Derivatives
deˈscriptiveness n. descriptive quality.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > narration > description or act of describing > [noun] > descriptive quality
descriptivenessa1768
a1768 J. Spence Anecd., Observ. & Characters Bks. & Men (1820) 20 There is but little that is worth reading in Gower: he wants the spirit of poetry, and the descriptiveness, that are in Chaucer.
1834 Q. Rev. 50 296 Represented with..lively and attractive descriptiveness.
1971 Fortnight 15 Dec. 16/1 Borges obviously shares my own dissatisfaction with the discoursiveness and descriptiveness of traditional prose fiction.
2008 Guardian (Nexis) 25 Oct. (Review section) 15 The poem finally disappoints, however, never really rising above its descriptiveness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1593