scribe means someone who writes; a draughtsperson; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis, secretary, notary, or copyist. It carries an Arena rating of 1666, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, scribe ranks #613 of 13,217 for Most Malleable Words, #1,077 of 13,217 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,196 of 13,217 for Most Storied Words, #1,320 of 13,217 for Most Ingenious Words.
scribe is pronounced /skɹaɪb/.
Why “scribe” is a great word
A professional who writes or copies documents by hand, from Middle English scribe, from Old French scribe, from Late Latin scrība ("secretary, public writer"), from Latin scrībere ("to write"). Unlike an amanuensis, a subordinate writing from dictation, or a scrivener, a commercial copyist for legal drafts, a scribe is an institution of one—an independent scholar, monastic copyist, or official recorder. It is the patient scrape of a quill on vellum in a silent scriptorium, the precise incision of cuneiform into damp clay, the soft rustle of papyrus unrolling in an archive—the fragile human chain by which knowledge outlives its keepers.
Etymology
From Middle English scribe, from Old French scribe (“scribe”), from Late Latin usage of scrība (“secretary”) (used in the Vulgate Bible translation to render Ancient Greek γραμματεύς (grammateús, “scribe, secretary”), which had been used in its turn to render the Hebrew סופר (“writer, scholar”)) from scrībere (“to write, draw, draw up, draft (a paper), enlist, enroll, levy; orig. to scratch”), probably akin to scrobs (“a ditch, trench, grave”).
noun
- Someone who writes; a draughtsperson; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis, secretary, notary, or copyist.“[T]he 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.”
- Someone who writes; a draughtsperson; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis, secretary, notary, or copyist.; A person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession.“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.”
- A journalist.
- 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.
verb
- To write.
- To write, engrave, or mark upon; to inscribe.“There—at Ioue wexed wroth, and in his ſpright / Did inly grudge, yet did it well conceale; / And bade Dan Phœbus Scribe her Appellation ſeale.”
- To record, as a scribe.
- To write or draw with a scribe.
- To cut (something) in order to fit it closely to an irregular surface, as a baseboard to a floor which is out of level, a board to the curves of a moulding, etc.
- To score or mark with compasses or a scribing iron.
Words closest in meaning
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