Etymologically
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conscribo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [kõːˈskriː.boː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [konˈskriː.bo][1]

Forms

cōnscrībō (present infinitive cōnscrībere, perfect active cōnscrīpsī, supine cōnscrīptum); third conjugation[1] Festus has cōnscrībsisse, Cato cōnscrībtus, and a law inscription conscreiptus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + scrībō (“to write”), “to write together” in a list.[2][4][3][1] De Vaan derives scrībō from Proto-Italic *skreif- (“to carve”), from Proto-Indo-European *skreybʰ- (“to carve”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] in whose Miles gloriosus the soldier asks someone ut sibi latrōnēs cōgerem et cōnscrīberem, “to gather and enlist mercenaries for him”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Cōnscrībere is “to enrol, enlist”, very often as a military term for levying troops.[2][4][1] It is also “to cover with writing” (tablets), “to write down”, and “to compose, draw up” a law, a contract or a book.[2][4][1]

Church Latin glosses it “enroll, elect, transcribe, commit to writing, inscribe”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ut sibi latrōnēs cōgerem et cōnscrīberem;[2][7] tacitus cōnscrīpsit tabellās, “he silently wrote the tablets”.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a book written about his consulship.[2][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy: tabellās cōnscrīptās, “written tablets”.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To enrol, enlist, levy (troops).[2][4][1][6]
  2. To cover with writing.[2]
  3. To write down, record.[2][6]
  4. To compose, draw up, write.[2][4][1]

Word family

  • cōnscrībillō
  • cōnscrīptiō
  • cōnscrīptor
  • conscriptum
  • cōnscrīptus
  • inconscriptus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de