descriptio

dēscriptĭo, ōnis (in MSS. and edd. often confounded with discriptio, v. infra), f. [describo] (freq. in Cic.), a marking out, delineation, copy, transcript: in concreto.

I.

Lit. (rare):

eadem caeli descriptio,

Cic. Rep. 6, 22; cf. id. ib. 1, 14:

explicate descriptionem imaginemque tabularum,

id. Verr. 2, 2, 77 fin. In plur.:

numeris aut descriptionibus aliquid explicare,

id. Tusc. 1, 17:

volutarum,

sketches, drawings, Vitr. 3, 3:

orbis terrarum,

maps, id. 8, 2 et saep. —Far more freq.,

II.

Trop.

A.

A representation, delineation, description:

nominis brevis et aperta descriptio,

Cic. Inv. 2, 18:

dilucida locorum,

Quint. 9, 2, 44:

regionum,

id. 4, 3, 12:

Siciliae,

id. 11, 3, 164:

convivii luxuriosi,

id. 8, 3, 66 et saep.—In rhetor., the delineating of character, Cic. Top. 22, 83; id. de Or. 3, 53, 205; Quint. 9, 1, 31; cf. Auct. Her. 4, 39, 51.—

B.

A proper disposition, order, arrangement:

via descriptionis atque ordinis (in oratione),

id. de Or. 2, 9, 36:

aedificandi,

id. Off. 1, 39;

legionum et auxiliorum,

Suet. Tib. 30:

descriptio centuriarum classiumque non erat,

Liv. 4, 4, 2:

populi,

Vulg. 2 Reg. 24, 9.—In plur.:

descriptiones temporum,

id. Ac. 1, 3, 19 et saep. (Descriptio is often found in MSS. and edd. in the sense of distribution, division; but here the proper form is discriptio, [p. 556] e. g. Cic. Rep. 2, 22; id. de Off. 1, 7, 21 saep.)