transcript

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English transcrit, also transcript,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French transcrit (“copy of a document”),^[4][5][6][7] recorded in Anglo-Norman from the 1170s,^[8] from Latin trānscrīptum (“a thing copied”), the noun use of the neuter past participle of trānscrībō (“to copy, write again in another place”).^[4][5][3][9] In the 15th century the English form was assimilated to the Latin one,^[4][6][7] and the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster take the word from Medieval Latin trānscrīptum (“a copy”) directly.^[10][11] The Latin verb is the source of transcribe, and is formed from trāns- (“across”) and scrībō (“to write”).^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A written copy, chiefly of a legal document: about 1290, in the life of Becket in the South English Legendary, where it is spelled transcrit.^[4][2] Collins dates the word to the 13th century,^[12] Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed close to its Latin meaning, a copy written from an original, and in law a copy of a legal record.^[4][7] From 1646 it was used figuratively for any copy, imitation or rendering;^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a copy; any thing written from an original" and quoted Glanvill: "The Grecian learning was but a transcript of the Chaldean and Egyptian".^[13] Later uses narrowed it to particular kinds of copy: a typed copy of dictated or recorded speech,^[11][12] and, chiefly in the United States and Canada, a student's official record of courses and grades.^[12] In 1961 the biologists Jacob and Monod used it for a length of RNA transcribed from a DNA template.^[4] An adjective transcript, copied, is recorded from about 1450, and a verb transcript, to transcribe, from 1593 to 1633.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – a written copy, chiefly of a legal document.^[4][2]
• c. 1450 – adjective, transcribed, copied.^[4]
• 1593 – verb, to transcribe (obsolete after 1633).^[4]
• 1646 – figurative, a copy, imitation or rendering.^[4]
• 1871 – a close translation or rendering.^[4]
• 1961 – in biology, RNA or DNA transcribed from a template.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A written, typed or printed copy, especially of something spoken or recorded: The court released a transcript of the hearing.
2. (law) An official copy of a legal record.
3. (chiefly US and Canada) An official record of a student's courses and grades.
4. Any reproduction or copy.
5. (biology) A length of RNA or DNA transcribed from a template.

Word family

• transcriptase

Related words

• transcribe
• transcription
• script
• scribe

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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)
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.