description (n.)

late 14c., descripcioun, "act of delineating or depicting," from Old French description (12c.) and directly from Latin descriptionem (nominative descriptio) "representation, description, copy," noun of action from past-participle stem of describere "write down, transcribe, copy, sketch," from de "down" (see de-) + scribere "to write" (from PIE root *skribh- "to cut"). Via the notion of "qualities which represent a class or individual" comes the sense "type, sort, kind" (1781).