▪ I. prescription1
(prɪˈskrɪpʃən)
[a. F. prescription (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), or ad. L. præscriptiōn-em a writing before or in front, a title, introduction; a pretext, pretence; a precept, rule; in law, as in sense 4; n. of action f. præscrībĕre (ppl. stem præscript-) to prescribe.]
I. 1. The action of prescribing or appointing beforehand; that which is prescribed or appointed; written or explicit direction or injunction.
| 1542 N. Udall Erasmus's Apophthegmes sig. f4v, The moste parte of people is barred from offendyng, onely by prestripcions [sic] of lawes, but a philosophier accoumpteth and vseth reason in stede of lawes. 1549 Latimer 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 37 Suerlye, we wyll not exchange oure fathers doynges and tradicions,..but chiefely lene vnto them and to theyr prescription. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xiv. (Arb.) 137 Your feete of three times by prescription of the Latine Grammariens are of eight sundry proportions. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Answ. §2 (1653) 8 Their prayer was not of Regular prescription, but of a present Conception. a 1716 Bp. O. Blackall Wks. (1723) I. 4 To lead his Life according to those Rules and Prescriptions which are here given by our Saviour. 1874 Sidgwick Meth. Ethics i. ix. 95 In the recognition of conduct as ‘right’ is involved an authoritative prescription to do it. 1888 Pall Mall G. 30 Apr. 7/1 Provinces..where the prescriptions of the Berlin Treaty are still unfulfilled. 1960 J. O. Urmson Conc. Encycl. Western Philos. 143/1 Moral judgements, on this view [sc. the prescriptivist's], share with imperatives the characteristic that to utter one is to commit oneself, directly or indirectly, to some sort of precept or prescription about actual or conceivable decisions or choices. 1963 English Jrnl. May 337/2 Note that this statement [from Sir James Murray's preface to the Dict.] contains not one word about fixing the language, about proscription or prescription of any kind. 1968 J. Lyons Introd. Theoret. Linguistics i. 43 It should be stressed that in distinguishing between description and prescription, the linguist is not saying that there is no place for prescriptive studies of language. |
2. A direction or formula (usually) written by a physician for the composition and use of a medicine; a recipe; transf. the medicine prescribed. In early use, more widely, any course of hygiene ordered by a physician, ‘doctor's orders’.
| 1579 Fenton Guicciard. x. (1599) 413 Eating..raw apples and things contrary to the prescription of Physicke. 1601 Shakes. All's Well i. iii. 227 You know my Father left me some prescriptions Of rare and prou'd effects. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 188 The best prescription..is to use such exercises as gently dilate and extend the Breast. 1679 Hist. Jetzer 15 This Prescription the Sub-prior faithfully made up, and put into Phials for use. 1700 Rycaut Hist. Turks III. 131 The Elector of Bavaria..remained at Brin to take the Air by the prescription of his Physitians. 1777 Fletcher Bible Armin. Wks. 1795 IV. 263 Physicians, who write their prescriptions in Latin. 1861 F. Nightingale Nursing 93 Women who will write to London to their physician,..and ask for some prescription from him, which they ‘used to like’. |
† 3. Restriction, limitation, circumscription. Obs.
| 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Prescription, limitation, or appointing a certaine compasse. 1649 Milton Eikon. ix. Wks. 1851 III. 405 To limit and lay prescription on the Laws of God and truth of the Gospel by mans establishment. a 1718 Penn Tracts Wks. 1726 I. 451 If Men be restricted by the Prescriptions of some Individuals. |
II. Law.
4. a. Limitation or restriction of the time within which an action or claim can be raised. [L. præscriptio, in law, An exception, objection, demurrer; a limitation of the subject-matter in a suit; limitation as to time (Digest 18. 1. 76).] Now commonly called negative prescription.
| [1292 Britton i. xix. §7 En tel cas voloms nous qe..prescripcioun de tens courge encountre nous cum encountre autre del poeple. a 1377 Rolls of Parlt. II. 409/1 La ou il ne poit assigner la dite Assise estre par prescription de temps.] 1474 Sc. Acts Jas. III (1814) II. 107/1 Anentis þe act maide of befor of prescripcione of obligacionis it is ordanit [etc.]. 1542 Henry VIII Declar. Scots D iij b, The passing ouer of tyme not commodious for the purpose, is not allegable in prescription for the losse of any right. 1605 Tryall Chev. i. i. in Bullen O. Pl. (1884) III. 268 Yeres limit not a Crowne; There's no prescription to inthrall a King. 1639 Fuller Holy War i. ix. (1840) 14 No prescription of time could prejudice the title of the King of Heaven. 1797 tr. Vattel's Law Nat. ii. xi. 187 Prescription is the exclusion of all pretensions to a right—an exclusion founded on the length of time during which that right has been neglected. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 768 The negative prescription of obligations, by the lapse of forty years, was first introduced [into Scotland] by the statute 1469, c. 29. Ibid. 774 By 7 Will. III, c. 3 §5, high treason committed within the Queen's dominions suffers a triennial prescription, if indictment be not found against the offender by a grand jury within that time. |
b. Uninterrupted use or possession from time immemorial, or for a period fixed by law as giving a title or right; hence, title or right acquired by virtue of such use or possession: sometimes called positive prescription.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 294 Ȝif coveitouse prestis han be in possession of oþere mennus goodis fourty ȝeer or þritti, wrongfully,..þei may not be taken from hem..; þe vertu of prescripcion, bi long custom of synne, haþþe made hem lordis. 1483 Act 1 Rich. III, c. 6 §1 Divers Fairs have been holden..by Prescription allowed afore Justices in Eyre. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 6 This is commen appurtenaunte by prescripcyon, bycause of the vse out of tyme of mynde. 1590 Swinburne Testaments 221 Where the probation and approbation of testamentes of the tenaunts there dwelling, dooth by prescription appertaine to the principall Lord. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. xiii. 269 His title to this plain..is made lawfull by the prescription of three thousand years possession. 1682 Enq. Elect. Sheriffs 32 Nor were these Charters..Original Grants, but only Confirmations of what the City had by prescription possess'd and enjoy'd long before. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 194 'Tis said in our Law Books, that the Publick acquires a Right by Custom, but only private Persons acquire it by Prescription. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 276 If prescription be once shaken, no species of property is secure, when it once becomes an object large enough to tempt the cupidity of indigent power. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 467 This mode of acquisition was well known in the Roman law by the name of usucapio... In the English law it is called prescription. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 766 The positive prescription was introduced [into Scotland] by the act 1617, c. 12. 1876 Digby Real Prop. iii. §18. 156 note, Prescription is where a person possesses a right by reason of the fact of long and uninterrupted enjoyment, as of right, either by himself and his ancestors, or by himself and his predecessors in title. 1895 Pollock & Maitland Hist. Eng. Law II. ii. iv. 81 Our law [in 13th c.] knew no acquisitive prescription for land, it merely knew a limitation of actions. Ibid. 140 Many incorporeal things can be acquired by prescription, by long-continued user. In particular we may see this in the case of rights of common. |
c. transf. and fig. (a) Ancient or continued custom, esp. when viewed as authoritative. (b) Claim founded upon long use.
| (a) 1589 Horsey Trav. (Hakl. Soc.) App. 301 Yt was not fytte his Majestie should be bound to geve his letteres of protectyon by prescriptyone, but as seemed his Kyngly pleasure beste. 1605 Camden Rem. (1637) 109 Yet Plantagenet, Steward, Valoys, Borbon, Habsburg, &c. by prescription of time haue preuailed so farre, as they are now accounted surnames. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 170 Almost all the Principal Points of the Intervenient Law of Nations..do depend upon Prescription or antient Custom. a 1704 T. Brown Praise of Wealth Wks. 1730 I. 83 Your love to my order is of antient date and very long prescription. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 1 ¶1 Some easy method..which..might enjoy the security of prescription. 1850 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. ii. 68 His temper was moulded to the love of precedent and prescription. 1881 Westcott & Hort Grk. N.T. Introd. §19 The..modified texts that reigned by an accidental prescription. |
| (b) 1625 Bacon Ess., Negotiating (Arb.) 91 Vse also such, as haue..Preuailed before in Things wherein you haue Emploied them; For that breeds Confidence, and they will striue to maintaine their Prescription. 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. iii. §17 Narrow self-ended Souls make prescription of good Offices. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 334 The country gentlemen and the country clergymen [had been] on the side of authority and prescription. |
† 5. The action of ‘prescribing’ or claiming by prescription (see prescribe v. 6). Obs.
| 1531 [see prescribe v. 6]. 1641 Termes de la Ley 222 Prescription is when a man claimeth any thing, for that he, his ancestors, or predecessors,..have had, or used any thing all the time, whereof no mind is to the contrary. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 65 A prescription de non decimando is a claim to be entirely discharged from tithes, and to pay no compensation for them. |
III. 6. attrib. and Comb., as prescription-book, prescription charge, prescription pad, prescription-writing; prescription-glass, (a) a glass vessel with measures marked on it (Cent. Dict.); (b) a lens ground according to an oculist's prescription.
| 1793 Beddoes Calculus 190 The art of pharmacy and the science of prescription-writing will become useless. 1887 J. C. Harris Free Joe, etc. (1888) 155 Dr. Buxton, prescription-book in hand, gazed at her..over his old-fashioned spectacles. 1888 Sci. Amer. 28 Apr. 259/1 The lens-grinding room..is devoted almost exclusively to making what are known as ‘prescription glasses’. 1928 E. O'Neill Strange Interlude ii. 61 He..goes to the table and taking a prescription pad from his pocket, hastily scratches on it. 1961 Daily Herald 9 Feb. 9 Of the doubled prescription charge his argument was: ‘It is ludicrous exaggeration to say that by and large a 2/os. charge is any more of a burden than a 1/os. charge was in 1949.’ 1965 Ann. Reg. 1964 47 Medical prescription charges would be abolished (at a cost of {pstlg}25 million a year) and pensions would be increased. a 1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 35 Kenneth Robinson gave the case for abolishing prescription charges. 1975 M. Simpson Chrome Connection iii. 61 The indentations on the prescription pad bore witness to his complicity. |
Hence † preˈscriptionary a., arising from prescription of time, prescriptive.
| 1728 Earbery tr. Burnet's St. Dead I. 80 We may safely, therefore, explode that old prescriptionary Maxim. |
▪ II. † prescription2
[Due to confusion of præ- and pro-.]
a frequent early form of proscription.
| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 19 Lawful cursing..is dede of þe kirk; for it is a prescripcoun fro comyning of feiþful men. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 129 Grete treasones, destruccion of citesynnes, robbenge and prescriptiones folowede [L. proscriptiones; 1387 exilynge]. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 275 The same outlawing or prescription is against the lawes. 1639 Drummond of Hawthornden Prophecy Wks. (1711) 181 Nothing was heard but Prescriptions, Banishments, Assasinations, Treasons. |