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English translation: a profile of physical features that can be used to identify the person
10:04 Aug 21, 2018
English language (monolingual) [PRO] Law (general)
English term or phrase:complete physical description
Context: You must provide 2 forms of identification. One must be a VALID form of government issued identification (driver’s license, state ID, passport), which bears your signature and has your photograph or a complete physical description.
Explanation: Fingerprint card instructions (USA): "Cards must carry the complete physical description of the applicant, including color of eyes and hair, height, weight, date of birth, and signature in ink. Abbreviations for hair and eye color may be used; please use BLK (black), BLND (blonde), BL (blue), BRN (brown), GRN (green), GRY (gray), and HZL (hazel). Since the cards cannot be properly indexed by the Department of Justice or the FBI without this information, incomplete cards will be returned to the applicant."
"The wallet-sized ID care [sic] contains a complete physical description of a child including fingerprint."
Canada: "Application for a permit shall be made to the sheriff of this county. The application shall include the name of applicant, his/her address, his/her complete physical description and complete information regarding the goods, wares or merchandise which he/she intends to sell."
Interpol: "The reason for the request must be clearly stated, indicating the type of investigation, and the fullest possible identifying details of the subject." "A red notice informs law enforcement officers in one country that those of another country are seeking the arrest of a particular person. The alert includes two main types of information: identity details (physical description, photograph, fingerprints, identity document numbers etc.) and"
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 14 hrs (2018-08-22 00:58:24 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Perhaps clearer: A full list of bodily features that can be used to ID the person.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day 7 hrs (2018-08-22 17:13:01 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I think that I at least cleared up what complete means: all the descriptor fields are filled in, whatever they are. And that the context is most likely US.
yet another digression, but it's in fact an important point of methodology:
for some terms, there could be a huge difference between what you can find on the publicly accessible/searchable part of the Web, and how the term is used in real real life - with what intended meaning in which context, with what frequency, .....
The searchable Web is only a fraction of what's available on the Internet, the whole Internet itself being no more than just a sample of how language is used!
Finding only few gits, all pointing to "ID used for a testing centre" might be relevant or might be not relevant at all!.
What would help would be to know who wrote this ST, in which country, for which intended audience, for what purpose - THAT would help to get all the nuances of the term as used in the ST.
Would be far more productive that this otherwise very interesting discussion.
Is it relevant for someone coming from a different country? Probably not, but I don't know. This part is important: 2 forms of VALID identification. One is a *government-issued* ID (from the US government - not directly related to the test center). The complete list of instructions is for a [brand name] computerized test to be "licensed as a real estate appraiser in the State of Mississippi" or "Plumbers and Gas Fitters Licensure" in Massachusetts. These are .com sites. I didn't see anything related to the UK.
...I didn't ask this question and be inundated with posts that just aren't relevant in this context.
No, they're not all for the same organization; it's not even the same state.
No one asked about why there is no photo (and I tried to explain that a few days ago). The question was what a "complete physical description" is. And I did agree with two posters and their initial statements, not what followed.
This entire debate about dyeing hair, cropping pictures and previous centuries is entirely off topic.
I know it's hard to imagine in registration-obsessed Germany, surveillance-happy Britain (quick reminder: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10172298/One-surveill... ) and EU-burdened Ireland that there are actually people out there who don't want so much government control.
I am really amazed that there has been such discussion on this. It looked like a simple question, and I gave a simple response (still totally valid) that the phrase means "say exactly what they look like" (never any mystery as to meaning of phrase at all), merely expressing surprise that a photo is not required on the ID mentioned "driver’s license, state ID, passport". As it turns out this is not required ID for travel at all but simply ID to present at a test center (UK centre) for licenses (UK licences) in the public services industry. I get 7 Ghits for the exact full phrase, ALL for the same company that runs these test centers. It still seems to me to be rather crazy to accept a physical description without photos. After all, if I am around the same height, weight etc. as another candidate I could sit the test for them! As previously said, hair/eye colour can be easily changed, and it's not that difficult to approximate a signature either. And no one at a test center is going to be there with a weighing scales, measuring tape or asking people to strip off so they can check for scars/tatoos etc.!! It comes back to basics of hair/skin/eye colour, height/weight
At the risk of repeating myself, what is "recent" is having IDs that rely almost exclusively on a colour photo of the head and limiting the "textual" description practically to Male/Female.
When B&W photos started being included in IDs [more than a century ago, I never said anything to the contrary] the habit of having ALSO all sort of textual description was retained for a very long time.
The amount of leftover "textual physical description" was shrinking with time, and only recently was reduced to a bare minimum.
At least translators should easily distinguish this kind of "nuances" ...
amarpaul no spoiler at all. I haven't told you if he got his target...or not!! Anyway, I've seen the film several times and it's still really good to watch, even though I know the ending! It was released in 1973 (just looked it up so don't do that or you WILL get the whole story!! So I won't post a link here either. You've been warned:-) As for the "fingerprint card instruction"...well could I remind you that that is NOT the context Asker gave: "VALID form of government issued identification (driver’s license, state ID, passport), which bears your signature and has your photograph or a complete physical description". So, can we stick to the actual context ??
@BDF Yes, of course you're right that the e-passports have that biometic data. I had to get one 2 years ago when going to the USA. Really saw how it was used and fingerprints also electronically taken at airport before seeing pre-immigration official. Also needed when I went to Australia this year where you have to look straight up into camera as your passport is scanned. Has to be a perfect match. But not all countries require e-passports, YET!
Afraid that the new e-passports don't include those details because they don't need them. They use biometric data instead: facial recognition, fingerprint recognition and iris recognition. Some countries are now using this data for internal ID cards. The Day of the Jackal stuff is now impossible and short of drastic plastic surgery or cutting your head off (not recommended), there's no way to hide your ID.
Yvonne was right with her first explanation and B D Finch is about translating it literally (one of the links above includes a translation into Spanish). No one is talking about a detailed head-to-toe description.
Search for "or a complete physical description" and you'll see that it has something to do with the U.S. education system. I don't want to post an example, as it could be the asker's document.
This does seem to be strange in this day and age as most IDs require a photo.
Of course people can change colour of hair and add coloured contact lenses etc but height/gender is harder to disguise! We've all seen the spy movies where people are changing from passport to passport or something like The Day of the Jackal where the main character (an assassin) changes his appearance for each new passport or travel document he is using, even becoming a one-legged war veteran (with the rifle concealed in his crutch) at the end...
And physical description on older passports etc, used to include height, weight, colour of hair and eyes and gender. Also any identifying marks like birthmarks or tatoos or scars. However, the modern electronic passports contain none of those details. (though they may be included in the hidden data?) But photos, mostly top half of body, have been included in travel documents since the 1900s so Daryo is wrong to say it's recent. yes, they have become increasingly cropped so now it it is really just a head shot that is used
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
colour of eyes, hair, skin I presume if there is no photo
Explanation: physically describe someone...say exactly what they look like
height, weight etc. often included but I think here it must be more about the head...
Seems strange that a physical description is enough though! Most ID requires a headshot.
Yvonne Gallagher Ireland Local time: 18:23 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 127
peer agreement (net): +3