scripture

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English scripture, borrowed from Latin scrīptūra,^[2][1][3][4] which in classical Latin meant the act of writing, written characters, a text or written record,^[2][5] and in Late Latin the sacred writings of the Bible.^[6][5][2] The Latin noun was formed with -ūra on scrīptus, the past participle of scrībō (“to write”),^[3][7][8] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take back to Proto-Indo-European *skribh- (“to cut”).^[5][4] It is related to scribe, script, inscribe and scribble.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sacred writings of the Bible: about 1330, in the Auchinleck manuscript's Adam and Eve.^[2] Barnhart dates it before 1325, in Cursor Mundi,^[6] and Etymonline to the early 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the singular without an article, Scripture is recorded from about 1330, the plural the Scriptures from about 1382 and the Scripture from about 1384, now somewhat rare.^[2] A passage or quotation from the Bible was also a scripture from about 1384.^[2][10] The word was extended to the sacred writings of Judaism (1510) and of other religions (1542).^[2] Weekley notes that Chaucer also used it for writing in general.^[11] From 1573 it was applied to any book or text regarded as authoritative,^[2][10] and since 1833 Scripture was the name of a school subject, the study of the Bible.^[2] A verb scripture, to write or record, is recorded from 1540.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1325 – the Bible, in Cursor Mundi.^[6]
• c. 1330 – Scripture, the sacred writings of the Bible.^[2]
• a1382 – the Scriptures.^[2]
• c. 1384 – a passage from the Bible.^[2]
• 1510 – the sacred writings of Judaism.^[2]
• 1542 – the sacred writings of another religion.^[2]
• 1573 – an authoritative book or text.^[2]
• 1833 – Scripture, the study of the Bible at school.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Scripture, also the Scriptures: the sacred writings of Christianity, the Old Testament and the New Testament; the Bible.
2. The sacred writings of another religion: Buddhist scripture.
3. A passage from the Bible or another sacred text.
4. A book or body of writing regarded as authoritative: For the party, the manifesto was scripture.

Related words

• script
• scribe
• inscribe
• scribble
• describe
• manuscript

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray