Scribe
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -aɪb
Origin
From Late Latin usage of scriba ("secretary") (used in Vulgate to render Ancient Greek γÏαμματεÏÏ‚ (grammateus, "scribe, secretary"), which had been used in its turn to render the Hebrew סופר ("writer, scholar")) from scribere ("to write, draw, draw up, draft (a paper), enlist, enroll, levy; orig. to scratch"), probably akin to scrobs ("a ditch, trench, grave").
Full definition of scribe
Noun
scribe
(plural scribes)- One who writes; a draughtsman; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis or secretary; a notary; a copyist.
- 14 September 2013, Jane Shilling, The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language], The pleasure of writing on wax with a stylus is exemplified by the fine, flowing hand of a Roman scribe who made out the birth certificate of Herennia Gemella, born March 128 AD.
- A person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession
- 2013, Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Eyeglasses, The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,.... Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.
- (archaic) A writer and doctor of the law; one skilled in the law and traditions; one who read and explained the law to the people.
- A very sharp, steel drawing implement used in engraving and etching, a scriber.
- A writer, especially a journalist.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Verb
- To write.
- To write, engrave, or mark upon; to inscribe.
- To record.
- To write or draw with a scribe.
- (carpentry) To cut (anything) in such a way as to fit closely to a somewhat irregular surface, as a baseboard to a floor which is out of level, a board to the curves of a moulding, etc.; so called because the workman marks, or scribes, with the compasses the line that he afterwards cuts.
- To score or mark with compasses or a scribing iron.