Thursday, November 17, 2016

ascribe, a scribe

Ascribe or ascribe ( one word ) means to attribute or give credit; to refer to as belonging to--
Most literary experts ascribe this work to Shakespeare.
He tends to ascribe his faults to other people.

A scribe or a scribe ( two words ) means one ( a ) clerk or writer, one who wrote things down for people for a living ( scribe ) --
Before the printing press, each book was copied by a scribe, using pen and ink.
The king couldn't read and write; he had a scribe to do that for him.

Now that you know that, you can say --
"Scholars ascribe this text to an ancient king; any errors are probably the work of a scribe."

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