amanuensis
noun
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The Etymology of Amanuensis
In Latin, the phrase servus a manu translates loosely as "slave with secretarial duties." (The noun manu, meaning "hand," gave us words such as manuscript, which originally referred to a document written or typed by hand.) In the 17th century the second part of this phrase was borrowed into English to create amanuensis, a word for a person who is employed (willingly) to do the important but sometimes menial work of transcribing the words of another. While other quaint words, such as scribe or scrivener, might have similarly described the functions of such a person in the past, these days we're likely to call him or her a secretary or an administrative assistant.
Examples of amanuensis in a Sentence
Laura Van Straaten, New York Times, 11 July 2025
The journalist’s tone was snarky, but there were some direct quotes from my father’s amanuenses.
—Sage Mehta, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024
By Hillary Kelly The story goes that John Milton—who went blind in his early 40s—composed 20 lines of Paradise Lost in his mind each evening, and then repeated them aloud the next day to an assortment of amanuenses, among them his three daughters.
—Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2024
Intermittent presidential advisor and capital-class amanuensis Larry Summers has, in similar terms, endorsed the idea that American workers must give up their labor market gains in order to end inflation.
—Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 6 Aug. 2022
Andy had aided him in his earliest experiments, serving first as something of a guinea-pig-cum-amanuensis.
—Kent Russell, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022
Cite this Entry
“Amanuensis.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amanuensis. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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amanuensis
noun
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