descry means to announce a discovery: to disclose; to reveal. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 80 out of 100.
descry is pronounced /dɪˈskɹaɪ/.
Why “descry” is a great word
DESCRY — [Verb] To catch sight of, especially something distant or obscure. From Middle English descrien (14th century), from Old French descrier ('to proclaim, announce, cry'), from des- (expressing reversal or intensity) + crier ('to shout, cry'). Unlike 'describe,' which transcribes into language, or 'discern,' which interprets with judgment, to descry is the raw, inaugural moment of visual discovery. It is the sailor’s cry at a smudge on the horizon, the archivist’s arrest before a single line in a sea of script, or the hunter’s focus locking onto a motion in the deep wood—the quiet triumph of finding a signal in the noise, a private victory of the gaze.
Etymology
From Middle English descrien, descriven in the 14th century already had the dual sense of "to proclaim, announce, make known" and "to see, discern, discover". On the one hand, the Middle English word is a loan Old French descrier (“to proclaim, announce, cry”), from des- + crier (“shout, cry”); in this case, the word is a doublet of decry, which was loaned from the same French source in the 17th century.
Alternatively, as suggested by the spelling descriven, the Middle English word may be a contraction of Old French descrire, descrivre (“to describe”), from Latin describere, and thus a doublet of describe (so Palmer 1890, attributing the view to Walter William Skeat), but modern dictionaries more often seem to prefer the view that there was a secondary, folk-etymological influence on descr
verb
- To announce a discovery: to disclose; to reveal.“The kalender, […] hath late deſcry'd / That evill affected planet Mars, ally'd / To temporizing Mercury, conjoyn'd / I'th'houſe of Death; […]”
- To see, especially from afar; to discover (a distant or obscure object) by the eye; to espy; to discern or detect.“VVe vvere deſcried, theyle mock vs novv dounright.”