Nondescript

Nondescript

Adjective / Noun · /ˌnɒn.dɪˈskrɪpt/

Definition

(Adjective) lacking distinctive or interesting features; not easily classified; dull and unremarkable; (Noun, rare) a nondescript person or thing — one that defies easy description or classification.

Origin

From non- (Latin: not) + descript, from Latin descriptus, past participle of describere (to describe, to write down: de- + scribere, to write). A nondescript being, literally, something that has not been described — that has not been given a formal written description or classification. The word entering English in the seventeenth century in the technical sense of a creature or thing not yet formally classified or described in natural history. The modern sense of unremarkably ordinary — lacking features worth describing — developing from this: what cannot easily be described being, effectively, what has no notable features.