Word of the DaySaturday, March 01, 2008
amanuensis
\uh-man-yoo-EN-sis\ , noun:1.
A person employed to take dictation or to copy manuscripts.
Quotes:
The chore of actually writing the words in the end fell to a hand-picked amanuensis.
-- Austin Baer, "River of Desire", Atlantic, October 1996
On this blue day, I want to be
nothing more than an amanuensis
to the birds, transcribing all the bits
and snatches of song riding in on the wind.
nothing more than an amanuensis
to the birds, transcribing all the bits
and snatches of song riding in on the wind.
-- Barbara Crooker, "Transcription (Poem)", Midwest Quarterly, March 22, 2003
When it comes to literature, the French count the largest number of Nobel Prizes; their authors include one who wrote a whole book without using the letter 'e' and another who, suffering from 'locked-in syndrome' after a severe stroke, dictated a memoir by blinking his eye as an amanuensis read through the alphabet.
-- Jonathan Fenby, France on the Brink
Origin:
Amanuensis comes from Latin, from the phrase (servus) a manu, "slave with handwriting duties," from a, ab, "by" + manu, from manus, "hand."
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