scribe

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
scribe/skrʌɪb/

▶noun

• 1 historical a person who copied out documents.

  ■ informal, often humorous a writer, especially a journalist.

• 2 Jewish History an ancient Jewish record-keeper or, later, a professional theologian and jurist.

• 3 (also scriber or scribe awl) a pointed instrument used for making marks to guide a saw or in signwriting.

▶verb

• 1 chiefly literary write.

• 2 mark with a pointed instrument.

– derivatives
scribal adjective.

– origin ME: from L. scriba, from scribere ‘write’; the verb is perh. partly a shortening of describe.