v. Also 7 transscribe. [ad. L. transcrībĕre, f. trans, TRANS- + scrībĕre to write.]
1. trans. To make a copy of (something) in writing; to copy out from an original; to write (a copy). Also absol.
1552. Huloet, Transcribe, transcribo.
1611. Cotgr., Transcrire, to transcribe, to write or copie out.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (Camden), 101. He coulde not tell whether all was transcrybed by his clerke.
1655. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 238. The enclosed leters … which I have desired your sonne for your beter satisfaction to transscribe.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., VI. § 3. The primitive Christians were careful to transcribe copies of the gospels.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, I. v. 134. The Writer’s Apprentice receives a certain allowance in money for every page he transcribes.
1850. Macaulay, in Life & Lett. (1913), II. xii. 266. Tomorrow I shall begin to transcribe again and to polish.
b. Less exactly: To copy or reproduce the matter or statements of (a writing or book) without regard to the wording; to quote, cite. Now rare.
a. 1633. Austin, Medit. (1635), 221. A Tradition (which I find not in Abdias, Bishop of Babylon; nor in any of the common Legends that I thinke were almost all transcribed from him).
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. i. 50. Solinus who transcribed Plinie … hath in this point dissented from him.
1676. Ray, Corr. (1848), 122. All which … makes me suspect he transcribed what he hath out of some writer, either Dutch, French, or Italian.
1726. Pope, Odyss., V. Notes 285. I have sometimes used Madam Dacier as she has done others, in transcribing some of her Remarks without particularizing them.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), p. xviii. A few plain, easy rules. Chiefly transcribed from Dr. Cheyne.
1850. Scoresby, Cheever’s Whalem. Adv., vi. (1858), 76. Which we have not room to transcribe here.
2. To write out in other characters, to transliterate; to write out (a shorthand account) in ordinary ‘long-hand’; formerly also, to translate or render accurately in another language.
1639. T. C[ary] (title), The Mirrour which Flatters not … Transcrib’d into English from the French [of La Serre],… And devoted to the well-disposed Readers.
1669. trans. Beguinus’ Tyroc. Chym., To Rdr. It becomes every man, about to transcribe, or render the Works of another in his own native Tongue, neither to add any thing of his own, nor to omit of the Author’s.
1724. A. Collins, Gr. Chr. Relig., 138. All the books … were transcrib’d, as is usually suppos’d, out of the Hebrew into the Chaldee Character.
1875. Renouf, Egypt. Gram., 1. The omitted vowels are conventionally transcribed by the letter e.
1877. Browning (title), The Agamemnon of Æschylus transcribed by Robert Browning.
b. Mus. To adapt (a composition) for a voice or instrument other than that for which it was originally written.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
† 3. fig. To copy or imitate (a person, his qualities, actions, etc.); to reproduce. Obs.
1647. Crashaw, Poems, 106. Thou and the lovely hopes that smile in thee Are ta’en out, and transcribed by thy great mother!
1664. Evelyn, trans. Freart’s Archit., Ep. Ded. 5. As many of those Illustrious Persons as by their large and magnificent Structures transcribe your Royal Example.
1709. Watts, Hymn ‘My dear Redeemer,’ ii. Such love, and meekness so divine, I would transcribe, and make them mine.
a. 1729. Rogers, 19 Sermons (1735), xv. 328. If we are as ready to imitate their Repentance, as we are to transcribe their Faults, we shall be received with the same Mercy that they were.
† 4. To attribute or ascribe to another by transference. Obs.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. xiv. (1634), 634, margin. Sacraments … be meanes whereby faith groweth, yet so that no power proper unto God be transcribed from him unto them.
1610. R. Abbott, Old Way, 15. The Papists … who haue transcribed the authority of Religion to mortall Men, to Doctors, and Fathers, and Councels.
1651. C. Cartwright, Cert. Relig., II. 34. As he used to transcribe to the Father whatsoever divine power was in him, so the Apostle doth not improperly transferre to the Father that which was Christs most proper work.
5. Roman Law. To transfer, assign, make over to another; = L. transcrībĕre: cf. TRANSCRIPTION 4.
1880. [see transcribed below].
Hence Transcribed ppl. a.; Transcribing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1700. P. Lorrain, in Pepys’ Diary, etc. (1879), VI. 229. The transcribing of the Appendix.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 19, ¶ 2. Small Quill-men and Transcribing Clerks.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, III. 128. A literal obligation is created by transcribed entries; and these are made in two ways,—either from thing to person, or from person to person.
