transcribe, v.
(trɑːnˈskraɪb, træn-)
Also 7 transcribe.
[ad. L. transcrībĕre, f. trans, trans- + scrībĕre to write.]
1. a. 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 H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords (Camden) 101 He could 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. |
c. Biol. To synthesize a nucleic acid (usu. RNA) using an existing nucleic acid (usu. DNA) as a template, so that the genetic information in the latter is copied. Const. into (with the template as obj.), from, off (with the new acid as obj.).
| 1962 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XLVIII. 544 Only one strand of the DNA is transcribed as functional messenger-RNA. 1973 Sci. Amer. Apr. 34/3 Their chromosomes are in a greatly enlarged and uncoiled ‘lampbrush’ stage where we might be able to see structural details of DNA being transcribed into messenger RNA. 1979 D. R. Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach xvi. 517 When mRNA is transcribed off of DNA, the transcription process operates via the usual base-pairing. 1981 L. L. Mays Genetics ii. 65 Once RNA is transcribed from DNA, it is cut to its final size, modified in specific ways, and sent to its site of action. |
2. a. 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 tr. 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 P. Le P. 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. Also intr. for pass.
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. 1976 Gramophone June 61/1 Vocal ensemble music should transcribe well for brass. |
† 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 tr. 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 (J.), If we imitate their repentance as we transcribe their faults. |
† 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. Abbot 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. transcrībere: cf. transcription 4.
| 1880 [see transcribed below]. |
6. a. To make a copy of (a gramophone recording) from a secondary source, not the master recording.
| 1931 Gramophone Dec. 264/1 The Philadelphians have recorded the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven complete on a single 12-in. disc and..thirty-two other discs..have been announced on which existing works..have been ‘transcribed’. |
b. Broadcasting. To record for subsequent reproduction; to broadcast in this form.
| 1941 W. Abbot Handbk. Broadcasting 245 These are inserted into transcribed programs or into a live program. |
Hence transcribed (-ˈskraɪbd) ppl. a.; tranˈscribing vbl. n. 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. 1961 J. Updike in New Yorker 17 June 31/1 A transistor radio somewhere in the sand releases in a thin, apologetic gust the closing peal of a transcribed service. 1981 L. L. Mays Genetics ii. 57 Sometimes the transcribed RNA is the final product. |