exscribo

Forms

exscrībō (present infinitive exscrībere, perfect active exscrīpsī, supine exscrīptum); third conjugation^[1] Also spelled excrībō.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + scrībō (“to write”).^[3][1] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *skreif-e/o- (“to carve”) and Proto-Indo-European *skreibʰ-e/o- (“to carve”), with the participles Oscan scriftas and Umbrian screhto (“written”) as cognates.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL record it from Plautus on;^[4][5] in the prologue of the Rudens it is used of names written down on tablets.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Varro speaks of many precepts copied from the books of Mago, and Cicero of copying out account books in the forum before a large crowd.^[2][7] Livy uses it of sacred rites written out and sealed, and Columella of vessels listed in writing.^[6] Gellius copied two lines from a comedy of Plautus.^[2][7]

Pliny the Younger uses it of copying portraits by painting, and figuratively of a daughter who reproduced her father in a remarkable likeness.^[3][2] The grammarian Scaurus, following Varro, says that those who copy accounts “write them out” (exscrībunt) rather than describe them.^[5] Medieval writers used it of excerpting, writing down, describing and noting, and in a deponent form meaning “to name”.^[8] English borrowed it as exscribe.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of names written down.^[2][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of precepts copied from Mago.^[2][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of copying account books.^[2][9]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of copying lines of Plautus.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To write out, copy, transcribe.^[3][2]
2. To write down, record (names or items).^[2][6]
3. To copy (a picture) by drawing.^[3][2]
4. (figurative) To take after, resemble.^[3][2]
5. (Medieval Latin) To excerpt; to describe.^[8]

Related words

• scrībō
• dēscrībō
• trānscrībō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de