Dictating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Acting by giving orders or commands to control or guide others ; speaking words aloud for another person to record in writing
2. Exercising authority by issuing instructions or commands ; verbally expressing text for transcription by someone else
3. Controlling or directing behavior through commands ; orally delivering speech to be written down by another person

Etymology: The verb "dictate" comes from Latin "dictare," a frequentative of "dicere" ("to say, speak"), so its core sense is repeated saying. A frequentative verb expresses repeated or intensive action, and "dictare" was used for pronouncing something again and again, which is why it came to mean speaking words aloud for someone to write down. The English verb was first recorded in 1577 and at first meant mainly to lay down a rule or command, a sense that still shows in "dictating terms." The idea of speaking words for another person to transcribe developed from that same notion of authoritative utterance. The Latin noun "dictatum," meaning "a thing said," gave English the word "dictate" as a noun, and this is also the source of "diktat," a doublet borrowed from German that now refers to a harsh settlement imposed by a victor. Both words preserve the sense of something pronounced with authority, one from Latin and one from German.

Synonyms: commanding, ordering, instructing, directing, decreeing

Antonyms: submitting, following, obeying, yielding, accepting