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#116936 12/01/03 04:55 PM
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Jackie Offline OP
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This morning, I got to thinking about some of the different ways we use "scribe". Circumscribe, proscribe, describe--please list more. But what I'm wondering is how, or whether, all of these uses somehow relate to what I consider the primary def. of scribe: one who writes.


#116937 12/01/03 05:13 PM
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They all relate back to the Latin verb scribere, to write. One can assume a writer, but that isn't necessarily implicit in the etymology.


#116938 12/01/03 05:46 PM
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old hand
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Scrivener
Inscribe
Script

Or did you only want those specifically with 'scribe' in them?


#116939 12/01/03 05:53 PM
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Some of these are straightforward from the preposition: inscribe, describe (write about).

Sometimes the visual imagery is fairly obvious:

subscribe = write one's name down on a list under other people's names
prescribe = write down beforehand, for someone else to use

Others you really need to know the circumstances in ancient Rome for them to make sense:

conscript(ion) = enrolling, writing down on a roll with other people's names
proscribe = write down publicly, to inform people of a ban (pro- "forward" being used unusually for "public", if my good book is to be believed)


#116940 12/01/03 06:42 PM
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scribblative
cacoëthes scribendi
stelliscript

-joe (indescribable) friday




#116941 12/01/03 08:16 PM
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And we all suffer from cacoethes scribendi.


#116942 12/02/03 02:24 AM
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Jackie Offline OP
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proscribe = write down publicly, to inform people of a ban Ok, thank you. How about circumscribed? I'll tell you what prompted me down this thought path. A friend was talking about keeping her grandbaby, and I got to thinking what circumscribed lives toddlers lead; for ex., they don't particularly feel closed in when they stay in one room for an entire day. To me, this usage means boundaries; not anything to do with writing that I can see.


#116943 12/02/03 03:23 AM
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circumscribe - from L. circumscribere to draw a line round, encompass, limit, confine, etc., f. circum around + scribere to make lines, write


#116944 12/02/03 12:45 PM
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Jackie Offline OP
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Thanks! Yeah, isn't it neat, all these uses? From one (ultimate) source that people must have considered darned important.
I gather that scribblative must mean written? What are cacoëthes scribendi and stelliscript, please? A scrivener is...someone who writes?



#116945 12/02/03 01:02 PM
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A scrivener is...someone who writes?

Yep, like Bartleby!


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