descriptum

Descriptum is a Latin term that functions as the neuter singular past participle of describere and as a neuter noun meaning "the description" or "that which is described." In classical and medieval Latin manuscripts, descriptum often appears in legal, scholastic, or descriptive texts as a descriptor for items or passages that have been described, or as a substantive referring to the description itself. The related forms descriptus (masculine) and descriptum (neuter) occur in participial usage; the noun descriptio is more common for the action or result of describing.

In usage, descriptum can serve as an adjective when it agrees with a neuter noun, for example "instrumentum descriptum" meaning the described instrument. It can also function as a noun meaning "the description" or "the described item," often in phrases such as "descriptum est" meaning "it has been described."

In modern scholarship, descriptum appears mainly in studies of Latin syntax and lexicography or in the editing of medieval texts, where editors may mark passages with the term to indicate a description that follows or has been given elsewhere.

There is a contrast with "descriptio," the standard Latin noun for description; descriptum is less common but used in contexts where a neuter noun is preferred or when functioning as a substantive participle. There is no widely adopted modern usage or brand name "Descriptum" as a concept; the term remains primarily of linguistic and philological interest.