One Word for Handwriting, Screenplays and Prescriptions
A script is written text: a style of writing, a film screenplay, or in American slang a prescription. All of them come from the Latin for write.
A script is written text — a handwriting style, a writing system, the words of a play, or the code a computer runs. One short Latin verb, *scribere*, sits under an extraordinary number of English words: describe, prescribe, subscribe, manuscript, scripture, conscription, postscript, scribble. Every one of them is somebody writing something down.
- A writing system. *The Cyrillic script.*
- Handwriting style. *Written in a flowing script.*
- A screenplay or play text. *He rewrote the script.*
- A program run by an interpreter. *A backup script.*
- A prescription (American, informal). *Pick up the script.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | script | The final script. |
| Plural | scripts | Two scripts. |
| Verb | script | She scripted the pilot. |
| Agent | scriptwriter | A television scriptwriter. |
| Adjective | scripted | A scripted apology. |
- Arabic script runs right to left.Writing system.
- The whole exchange felt scripted.Figurative, unflattering.
- The script failed on the second run.Computing.
The scribere family
- Describe — write about
- Prescribe — write in advance, hence a doctor's order
- Subscribe — write underneath, originally to sign
- Manuscript — written by hand
- Postscript — written after
Latin *scriptum*, a thing written, from *scribere*, to write. English used it for handwriting from the 1300s; the theatre sense is nineteenth-century, and the computing sense twentieth.
Why is a prescription called a script?
It is a clipping of prescription, common in American informal and medical speech.
What does it mean if something sounds scripted?
That it seems rehearsed rather than spontaneous. The implication is usually that the speaker is not being honest.