scribe

Etymology

From Middle English scribe, from Old French scribe (“scribe”), from Late Latin usage of scriba (“secretary”) (used in the Vulgate Bible translation to render Ancient Greek γραμματεύς (grammateús, “scribe, secretary”), which had been used in its turn to render the Hebrew סופר (“writer, scholar”)) from scribere (“to write, draw, draw up, draft (a paper), enlist, enroll, levy; orig. to scratch”), probably akin to scrobs (“a ditch, trench, grave”). Doublet of shrive. The verb sense used in carpentry comes from the way a workman uses a compass to mark a line before cutting.

noun

1. Someone who writes; a draughtsperson; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis, secretary, notary, or copyist.
   [T]he pleasure of writing on wax with a stylus is exemplified by the fine, flowing hand of a Roman scribe who made out the birth certificate of Herennia Gemella, born March 128 AD. 14 September 2013, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), page R28
   1. A person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession.ᵂ
      The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,[…]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read. 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
2. (informal) A journalist.
3. (archaic) A writer and doctor of the law; one skilled in the law and traditions; one who read and explained the law to the people.
4. A very sharp, steel drawing implement used in engraving and etching, a scriber.

verb

1. To write.
2. To write, engrave, or mark upon; to inscribe.
   he scribed his name on the mould, and wrote it on the two pieces of pasteboard 1812, anonymous author, The Trial
3. To record, as a scribe.
4. To write or draw with a scribe.
5. (carpentry) To cut (something) in order to fit it closely to an irregular surface, as a baseboard to a floor which is out of level, a board to the curves of a moulding, etc.
6. To score or mark with compasses or a scribing iron.