English

Noun

amanuensis ‎(plural amanuenses)

1. One employed to take dictation, or copy manuscripts.
2. A clerk, secretary or stenographer, or scribe.
   • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:

     “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […]”

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:amanuensis.

Translations

References

• Gamble, Harry Y. “Amanuensis.” Anchor Bible Dictionary. Vol. 1. Ed. David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
• Longenecker, Richard N. “Ancient Amanuenses and the Pauline Epistles.” New Dimensions in New Testament Study. Eds. Richard N. Longenecker and Merrill C. Tenney. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974. 281-97. idem, “On the Form, Function, and Authority of the New Testament Letters.” Scripture and Truth. Eds. D.A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983. 101-14.

Latin

Etymology

From ab + manus ‎(“hand”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aː.ma.nuˈen.sis/, [aː.ma.nʊˈẽː.sɪs]

Noun

āmanuēnsis m ‎(genitive āmanuēnsis); third declension

1. secretary, clerk

Usage notes

Originally used for a slave at his master's personal service 'within hand reach', performing any command. Later, it was specifically applied to intimately trusted servants (also many freedmen) acting as a personal secretary.

Inflection

Third declension i-stem.

Descendants

• English: amanuensis

References

• amanuensis in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• amanuensis in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• amanuensis in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin