different between description vs prescription

English

Etymology

From Old French description, from Latin d?scr?pti?, noun of action of d?scr?b? (“I describe”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??sk??p??n/

Noun

description (countable and uncountable, plural descriptions)

1. A sketch or account of anything in words; a portraiture or representation in language; an enumeration of the essential qualities of a thing or species.
2. The act of describing; a delineation by marks or signs.
3. A set of characteristics by which someone or something can be recognized.

   The zoo had no lions, tigers, or cats of any description.

4. (taxonomy) A scientific documentation of a taxon for the purpose of introducing it to science.

   The type description of the fungus was written by a botanist.

5. (linguistics) The act or practice of recording and describing actual language usage in a given speech community, as opposed to prescription, i.e. laying down norms of language usage.
6. (linguistics) A descriptive linguistic survey.

Synonyms

• (characteristics): sort, kind, type, variety

Derived terms

Related terms

• describe
• descriptive

Translations

See also

• prescription
• descriptivism

Further reading

• description in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• description in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

See also

• synopsis
• interpretation

Anagrams

• discerption, predictions

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?scripti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?s.k?ip.sj??/
• Homophone: descriptions

Noun

description f (plural descriptions)

1. description

Related terms

• décrire
• descriptif

Further reading

• “description” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

From Latin d?scripti?.

Noun

description f (oblique plural descriptions, nominative singular description, nominative plural descriptions)

1. description

Related terms

• descrivre

English

Alternative forms

• præscription (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French prescripcion, from Latin praescriptio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???sk??p??n/, (proscribed) /p??sk??p??n/

Noun

prescription (countable and uncountable, plural prescriptions)

1. (law)
   1. The act of prescribing a rule, law, etc..
      • "Jurisdiction to prescribe" is a state's authority to make its laws applicable to certain persons or activities. -- Richard G. Alexander, Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996: Congress exceeds its jurisdiction to prescribe law. Washington and Lee Law Review, 1997.
   2. Also called extinctive prescription or liberative prescription. A time period within which a right must be exercised, otherwise it will be extinguished.
   3. Also called acquisitive prescription. A time period after which a person who has, in the role of an owner, uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly possessed another's property acquires the property. The described process is known as acquisition by prescription and adverse possession.
2. (medicine, pharmacy, pharmacology) A written order, as by a physician or nurse practitioner, for the administration of a medicine or other intervention. See also scrip.
   • The surgeon wrote a prescription for a pain killer and physical therapy.
3. (medicine) The prescription medicine or intervention so prescribed.
   • The pharmacist gave her a bottle containing her prescription.
4. (ophthalmology) The formal description of the lens geometry needed for spectacles, etc..
   • The optician followed the optometrist's prescription for her new eyeglasses.
5. (linguistics) The act or practice of laying down norms of language usage, as opposed to description, i.e. recording and describing actual usage.
6. (linguistics) An instance of a prescriptive pronouncement.
7. A plan or procedure to obtain a given end result; a recipe.
   • "Early to bed and early to rise" is a prescription for a healthy lifestyle.
8. (obsolete) Circumscription; restraint; limitation.
   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch 2:

     There is an air of prescription about him which is always agreeable to Sir Leicester; he receives it as a kind of tribute. ... It expresses, as it were, the steward of the legal mysteries, the butler of the legal cellar, of the Dedlocks.

Usage notes

• Do not confuse with proscription.

Synonyms

• forescript
• (medicine): ?, Rx
• (a plan or procedure): recipe

Related terms

• prescribe

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

prescription (not comparable)

1. (of a drug, etc.) only available with a physician or nurse practitioner's written prescription

   Many powerful pain killers are prescription drugs in the U.S.

Translations

See also

• prescriptivism

French

Etymology

From Old French prescripcion, borrowed from Latin praescriptio, praescriptionem.

Pronunciation

Noun

prescription f (plural prescriptions)

1. prescription (all senses)

Norman

Etymology

From Old French prescripcion, borrowed from Latin praescriptio, praescriptionem.

Noun

prescription f (plural prescriptions)

1. (Jersey) prescription