Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A public clerk or secretary, especially in ancient times.
  • noun A professional copyist of manuscripts and documents.
  • noun A writer or journalist.
  • intransitive verb To mark with a scriber.
  • intransitive verb To write or inscribe.
  • intransitive verb To work as a scribe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who writes; a writer; a penman; especially, one skilled in penmanship.
  • noun An official or public writer; a secretary; an amanuensis; a notary; a copyist.
  • noun In Scripture usage:
  • noun One whose duty it was to keep the official records of the Jewish nation, or to act as the private secretary of some distinguished person (Esther iii. 12).
  • noun One of a body of men who constituted the theologians and jurists of the Jewish nation in the time of Christ.
  • noun A pointed instrument used to mark lines on wood, metal, bricks, etc., to serve as a guide in sawing, cutting, etc.
  • To write; mark; record.
  • Specifically
  • To mark, as wood, metal, bricks, etc., by scoring with a sharp point, as an awl, a scribe or scriber, or a pair of compasses. Hence To fit closely to another piece or part, as one piece of wood in furniture-making or Joiners' work to another of irregular or uneven form.
  • To write.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who writes; a draughtsman; a writer for another; especially, an offical or public writer; an amanuensis or secretary; a notary; a copyist.
  • noun (Jewish Hist.) A writer and doctor of the law; one skilled in the law and traditions; one who read and explained the law to the people.
  • intransitive verb To make a mark.
  • transitive verb To write, engrave, or mark upon; to inscribe.
  • transitive verb (Carp.) 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 molding, or the like; -- so called because the workman marks, or scribes, with the compasses the line that he afterwards cuts.
  • transitive verb To score or mark with compasses or a scribing iron.
  • transitive verb an iron-pointed instrument for scribing, or marking, casks and logs.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who writes; a draughtsman; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis or secretary; a notary; a copyist.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A very sharp, steel drawing implement used in engraving and etching, a scriber.
  • noun A writer, especially a journalist.
  • verb To write.
  • verb To record.
  • verb To write or draw with a scribe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun informal terms for journalists
  • noun French playwright (1791-1861)
  • verb score a line on with a pointed instrument, as in metalworking
  • noun a sharp-pointed awl for marking wood or metal to be cut
  • noun someone employed to make written copies of documents and manuscripts

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin scrība, from Latin, keeper of accounts, secretary, from scrībere, to write; see skrībh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin usage of scriba ("secretary") (used in Vulgate to render Ancient Greek γραμματεύς (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").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word scribe.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.