prescribe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English prescriben,^[2][3][1][4] borrowed from Latin praescrībō (“to write before, put in writing in front; to order, direct”),^[5][2][3][4] formed from prae- (“before”) and scrībō (“to write”),^[5][4][6][7] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace to Proto-Indo-European *skribh- (“to cut”).^[3][4] In post-classical Latin the verb had also come to mean to limit (in Tertullian), to claim by lapse of time (13th century) and to order the use of a medicine (1528).^[5] Merriam-Webster derives the legal sense, to hold by right of prescription, from prescribere in Medieval Latin,^[8] and the OED takes the legal uses largely from prescription, comparing prescriver in Law French.^[5] Weekley notes that it replaced an earlier prescrive, from Old French prescrire.^[9] It is related to scribe and describe.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lay down rules or laws, to dictate or direct: 1445, in the records of St Bartholomew's Priory.^[5] Etymonline glosses the mid-15th-century verb as "to write down as a direction, law, or rule".^[3] The Oxford Dictionary of English gives "confine within bounds" and the legal "claim by prescription" as its first senses.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb was used both of laying down rules (1445) and, in law, of holding or claiming a right by prescription, long use (1455).^[5][6] From about 1487 it was transitive, to lay down something as a rule to be followed.^[5] The medical sense, to order the use of a remedy, is first recorded in 1533 in the revised OED,^[5] whereas Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1581 and take it as probably a back-formation from prescription, which had the meaning of a doctor's written direction from 1579.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave two senses: to set down with authority, and to direct medically.^[11] In Scots law the verb still means, of an action or claim, to lapse through the passage of time (from 1617).^[5][6] In linguistics the sense of laying down rules gave the contrast between dictionaries that describe and those that prescribe, quoted by the Shorter Oxford from American Speech.^[6]

Timeline

• 1445 – to lay down rules, to direct.^[5][2]
• 1455 – to hold by prescription (obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1485 – to limit, confine within bounds.^[5]
• c. 1487 – to lay down as a rule to be followed.^[5]
• 1528 – to assert a prescriptive right or claim.^[5]
• 1533 – to order the use of a medicine or remedy (1581 in Barnhart and Etymonline).^[5][2][3]
• 1617 – Scots law, of an action, to lapse with time.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lay down as a rule or direction to be followed; to dictate or ordain: The regulations prescribe the width of every doorway.^[12][8][5]
2. To advise or order the use of a medicine or treatment, especially in a written prescription: The vet prescribed painkillers for the dog.^[12][8][5]
3. To give advice as a doctor does; to write prescriptions: He prescribes for half the village.^[8][5]
4. (law) To claim or acquire a right or title by prescription.^[12][8][5]
5. (law) To become invalid or unenforceable through lapse of time.^[12][8][6]
6. To limit or confine within bounds (rare).^[5][6]

Word family

• prescriber
• prescribable
• misprescribe
• overprescribe
• represcribe

Related words

• prescription
• prescriptive
• prescriptivist
• prescript
• scribe
• describe
• proscribe
• inscribe
• subscribe

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins