_Ascribe_, for example, does not
act like a member of the household of writers, whatever it may look like.
We should have to scrutinize it carefully or consult the record for it in
that verbal Who's Who, the dictionary, before we could understand how it
came by its scribal affiliations honestly. But once we begin to reflect or
to probe, we find we have not mistaken its identity. _Ascribe_ is the
offspring of _ad_ (to) and _scribo_ (write), both Latin terms.
It originally meant writing to a person's name or after it (that is,
imputing to the person by means of written words) some quality or
happening of which he was regarded as the embodiment, source, or cause.
Nowadays we may saddle the matter on him through oral rather than written
speech. That is, _ascribe_ has largely lost the writing traits. But
all the same it is manifestly of the writing blood.
The _scribes_ are of undivided racial stock, Latin. Consider now the
_manu_, or _man_, words which sprang from the Latin
_manus_, meaning "hand." Here are some of them: manual, manoeuver,
mandate, manacle, manicure, manciple, emancipate, manage, manner,
manipulate, manufacture, manumission, manuscript, amanuensis.
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