transcribe

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin trānscrībō (“to copy, write again in another place, write over, transfer”),^[2][3][4][5] from trāns- (“across, over”) and scrībō (“to write”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *skribh- (“to cut”).^[4][5] An earlier form of the verb, transcrīven, is recorded in the Wycliffite Bible, from Old French transcrivre, a variant of transcrire.^[6][4] Hoad and Weekley also note the older transcrit, from French, which was later reshaped after Latin as transcript.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a copy of something in writing: 1552, in Huloet's Abcedarium Anglico Latinum.^[2][3][9] Etymonline gives the 1550s, and Dictionary.com 1545–55.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "to copy; to write from an exemplar".^[11] In the 17th century its uses widened: to reproduce a book's matter without its wording, or to quote, from before 1634,^[2] and figuratively to imitate a person or a person's qualities, from 1646 to 1729.^[2] A use for attributing something to another, from 1561 to 1651, has died out.^[2] From 1639 it meant writing out in other characters, which came to include turning shorthand into longhand.^[2][7] Thomas Gray coined transcribble in a letter of 1746, for doing it poorly.^[4] Later senses include adapting music for another voice or instrument (1891),^[2] copying a gramophone recording (1931),^[2] recording for later broadcast (1941),^[2] and transferring data between storage devices.^[12] Barnhart dates the related sense of transcription, a recording of a broadcast, to 1932.^[3] In 1962 biology adopted the verb for building a nucleic acid on a template, so that genetic information is copied.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1552 – to make a written copy.^[2][3][9]
• 1561 – to attribute to another (obsolete by 1651).^[2]
• before 1634 – to reproduce the matter of a writing; to quote (now rare).^[2]
• 1639 – to write out in other characters, to transliterate.^[2][7]
• 1646 – to imitate (obsolete by 1729).^[2]
• 1891 – in music, to adapt for another voice or instrument.^[2]
• 1931 – to copy a gramophone recording.^[2]
• 1941 – to record for later broadcast.^[2]
• 1962 – in biology, to synthesize a nucleic acid on a template.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a written copy of a text: The clerk transcribed the old parish register by hand.^[2][9][10]
2. To write or type out in full from speech, notes, shorthand or a recording: She spent the evening transcribing the interview.^[12][9][2]
3. To make a phonetic transcription of speech.^[12]
4. To write out in another alphabet or language; to transliterate or translate.^[12][10][2]
5. (music) To rewrite a piece for an instrument or voice other than the one intended; to arrange.^[12][2]
6. (broadcasting) To record a programme or speech for later broadcast.^[12][2]
7. (computing) To transfer data from one storage device to another.^[12]
8. (biology) To synthesize a nucleic acid, usually RNA, using another, usually DNA, as a template.^[2][3]

Word family

• transcribable
• transcriber
• mistranscribe
• pretranscribe
• retranscribe

Related words

• scribe
• transcription
• transcript
• scrivener

References

1. ^ 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 r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins