Graphium is a Latin noun (graphium -i ) for a stilus, which originally was a pointed instrument for writing on waxen tablets.

Graphium derives from the Indo-European root gerebh ("to scratch", thus "to scratch or carve marks or characters upon bark or wax", and thereupon "to write"). It becomes, on the Greek side, graphien , "to write" [originally, "to scratch", "to engrave"] ( with its derivative graphikos, "of, by, for writing" ) and, by extension, graph, graphic, graphite, epigraph, telegraph, photograph, graphology, etc. onions149, partridge264, pei82.

The root gerebh also produces gramma , "a writing", on the Greek side too , and from that to gram, epigram, anagram, telegram, program ( -me ), gramophone. As well, it becomes grammar, ( "the art of writing" ), grammatical, grammarian, and through a somewhat circuitous Scottish derivation of the archaic gramarye, which meant "magic" (to the medieval mind, anyone who knew how to write was a magician, and most incantations came in written form), it became glamour, "that which casts a spell over you", with its modern off-shoots, glamorous and glamorize. The Greek graphion, "a stylus for writing", also derives from the gerebh root ( though graphium seems to have evolved from graphien rather than from it ). pei82-3.

Further, on the Germanic side, the Indo-European root gerebh produces the Anglo-Saxon verb ceorfan, "to notch, nick, or cut", hence "to carve", and also the noun crabba, which becomes crab ( and crab apple, crab grass, etc., as well as craps, the dice game, previously called crabs ). This same noun, in Old High German, assumes the form chrebiz, which, in French, becomes écrevisse , and, in English, "crayfish" (through a misunderstanding of the word's last syllable - which is the process of "popular etymology" ). pei82.

Old English was first written in the Anglo-Saxon or Anglian version of the runic alphabet (originally used in northern Europe, including Scandinavia & Iceland, to write Germanic languages, dating from around the third century A.D. ). It has close similarities to both Greek and Latin symbols and seems to be derived from the alphabets of southern Europe, probably the Roman, which runes closely resemble. crystal9, mcarthur879-80, pyles58.

Runes - angular letters intended originally to be engraved, cut or scratched on wood, stone, metal, or bone - were initially associated with pagan mysteries and today are popularly, though erroneously, thought to have been used exclusively by the Druids, the Celtic priests. In actual fact, the runes, though ill adapted to any sustained composition, served well enough for inscriptions, charms, incantations, etc. The word rune itself derives from the Old English rún, which, according to tradition, means "whisper", "a dark saying", "secret", or "mystery". crystal9, mcarthur879, pyles58.

The common runic alphabet consisted of 24 letters and can be written horizontally in both directions. Each letter had a name, and the alphabet as a whole was called by the name of its first 6 letters: the Futhorc. crystal9.

When Germanic tribes invaded the British Isles in the early Middle Ages, they added 6 additional letters to the 24 original runes found in the version in Britain at the time, in order to cope with the range of sounds found in Old English. In its most developed form, in 9th century Northumbria, the runic alphabet consisted of 31 symbols. crystal9, pyles58.

The word write is similar to the German word reissen , "to tear", which derives from the Old High German word rizan , also "to tear". Book is generally thought to be related to beech, which derives from Old English boc . It has been plausibly suggested that the runes were originally scratched, cut, or torn in strips of beechwood, or from the bark of beech trees. mcarthur139, onions1015, pyles58.

Writing comes from writan, Anglo Saxon for "to scratch on bark". This was common Teutonic, but when it came to write, the Latin scribe, from scribere, seems the most likely source ( which also originally meant "to dig in" rather than "to mark on the surface"). shipley296.

Throughout the Middle Ages, all things connected with writing were linked with the clergy. A shrine was first a coffer where writing materials, as well as expensive, valuable manuscripts, were kept. Shrine originates from the Anglo Saxon scrin , itself a derivative of the Latin scrinium, from scribere, "to write". Being secure, these coffers were then eventually used for storing the sacred relics of martyrs and saints; thence, the present meaning, with its offshoots: prescription, prescribe, circumscribe, conscript, describe, manuscript, scribe, script, scribble, ascribe, proscribe, transcribe, nondescript ("that cannot be written down"), postscript, inscription, scripture, superscript, subscription. shipley322.

 

 

SOURCES

The above information - directly or indirectly, flagrantly or unknowingly, malevolently or benignly - has been plagiarized, misquoted, distorted, embellished, misrepresented, from one, some, or all of the following sources:

Robert Claiborne, "The Roots of English: A reader's handbook of word origins"
(New York: Times Books, 1989).

David Crystal, "The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language"
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

J.A. Cuddon, "A Dictionary of Literary Terms"
(New York: Penguin Books, 1984).

Josefa Heifetz, "Mrs. Bryne's Dictionary of unusual, obscure, and preposterous Words"
(Secaucus, New Jersey: University Books, 1974).

Tom McArthur, ed., "The Oxford Companion to the English Language"
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).

C.T. Onions, ed., "The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology"
(Oxford: Oxford Univerity Press, 1966).

Eric Partridge, "Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English"
(New York: Greenwich House, 1983).

Mario Pei, "The Families of Words"
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1962).

Thomas Pyles, "The Origins and Development of the English Language", 2d ed.
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1971).

Joseph T. Shipley, "Dictionary of Word Origins"
(New York: Philosophical Library, 1945).

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