Inscriptions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Character designs or writings created on surfaces for conveying meaning or memorializing something significant
2. Words or symbols formally engraved, carved, or otherwise marked onto a hard surface as a permanent record
3. Permanent markings or writings inscribed onto stone, metal, or other materials to convey information or commemorate events

Etymology: The word "inscription" is a plain Latin compound. Its core is the verb "scrībō," meaning "to write," which Latin speakers combined with the prefix "in-," "into" or "on." Literally, an inscription is something written into or onto a surface, and the English noun was borrowed directly from the Latin "īnscrīptiō," which is built from the same verb. The verb "scrībō" has an ancient ancestry, tracing back through Proto-Italic to a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root for "to cut" or "to scratch," which fits the earliest writing: scratches cut into stone, clay, or wood. So the Latin sense of writing began as the physical act of cutting a surface, and "inscription" keeps that original idea of marking something hard. The plural "inscriptions" simply denotes more than one such marking, and the plural ending is the regular English one.

Synonyms: engraving, carving, writing