write

Pronunciation

• IPA: /raɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English writen, inherited from Old English wrītan (“to score, outline, draw; to write”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *wrītan,^[2][3][5] “to tear, scratch”, the source also of Old Saxon wrītan “to tear, scratch, write”, Old Norse ríta (“to score, write”) and German reißen (“to tear; to sketch”).^[2][5][6] Outside connections are doubtful:^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Greek ῥίνη (rhínē, “file, rasp”),^[3][6] and the American Heritage Dictionary traces the Germanic root to PIE *wreid- “to cut, scratch, tear, sketch an outline”,^[4] while Hoad calls it of unknown origin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English wrītan, “to score, draw the figure of”: about 725, in Beowulf;^[3] “to set down in writing” from 832.^[3] Word Origins notes that the idea behind the word in Germanic was “to score or carve”, as people in northern Europe first wrote by inscribing letters on wood.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that every western Indo-European language except English takes its verb for “to write” from Latin scrībere, as French écrire and German schreiben do, and that only Old English used wrītan for scratching on parchment with a pen, and that English is similarly contrary in read.^[4] Etymonline notes that the words for “write” in most Indo-European languages first meant “carve, scratch, cut”, like Latin scrībere and Greek graphein.^[2] “To exchange letters” is by the mid-14th century, and “to communicate in writing” by about 1400.^[2] Writ large is from the 1640s.^[2] Nothing to write home about appears to have been first used by Ian Hay in 1914, probably from soldiers' slang.^[7] Writer is Old English, from before 899.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to score, draw.^[3]
• 832 – to set down in writing.^[3]
• before 899 – writer.^[3]
• mid-14th century – to exchange letters.^[2]
• c. 1400 – to communicate in writing.^[2]
• 1640s – writ large.^[2]
• 1914 – nothing to write home about.^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To form letters, words or symbols on a surface with a pen or other instrument.
2. To compose a text, such as a book, letter or music.
3. To communicate by letter.
4. To fill in or sign a document: write a cheque.
5. (computing) To record data in a memory or on a storage device.

Word family

• overwrite
• rewrite
• underwrite
• write-down
• write-in
• write-off
• writer
• cowrite

Related words

• writ
• writing
• written
• typewriter

Usage notes

The past tense is wrote and the past participle written; the forms writ for both are now archaic or dialect.^[8][5] An obsolete noun write, “writing, Scripture”, was a variant of writ.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press