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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. One who is employed to take dictation or to copy manuscript.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A person whose employment is to write what another dictates, or to copy what has been written by another.

Wiktionary

  1. n. One employed to take dictation, or copy manuscripts
  2. n. A clerk, secretary or stenographer, or scribe.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A person whose employment is to write what another dictates, or to copy what another has written.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. someone skilled in the transcription of speech (especially dictation)

Etymologies

  1. Latin āmanuēnsis, from the phrase (servus) ā manū, (slave) at handwriting : ā, ab, by; see ab-1 + manū, ablative of manus, hand; see man-2 in Indo-European roots.

Examples

  • “Which amanuensis is a drunken, bankrupt village grocer, of whom my son-in-law is one of the defrauded creditors – Mr. L — having intrusted him with about forty pounds 'worth of the plantation rice, to sell on commission for him, which rice, indeed, was sold, but was never accounted for, and as the man is a bankrupt, never will be.”

    Further Records, 1848-1883: A Series of Letters

  • “Paul's autograph salutation (so 1Co 16: 21; 2Th 3: 17), attesting that the preceding letter, though written by an amanuensis, is from himself.”

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

  • “Eight to five you never heard the word amanuensis and you never saw a cocklebur.””

    The Black Mountain

  • “The amanuensis was a red-haired young man -- probably a colonial from one of the worlds of Rita's Veil, judging by his accent.”

    Analog Science Fiction and Fact

  • “My amanuensis is a gentleman who acted as my aide-de-camp, and I beg you will acquaint his good father that he acquitted himself highly to my satisfaction, and showed himself deserving the stock from which he sprung.”

    Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I

  • “Driven by the "very human desire for philosophical immortality," Bruno recites his life story to a young researcher, his "amanuensis," in a lab where he's being held for murder.”

    The Washington Post: Review of Benjamin Hale's 'Evolution of Bruno Littlemore': Aping human love

  • “You were added to the list for one reason, John: you added the word "amanuensis" to my vocabulary.”

    10 Genealogy Blogs Worth Reading

  • “In the screenshot above, I'm using YubNub to do a Google search for the word "amanuensis". posted by Jonathan at”

    Archive 2007-03-01

  • “Madison did perform a hugely important function as an "amanuensis," dutifully and painstakingly recording the convention proceedings in what historians today call an accurate and complete stenographic record, the best available.”

    Reviewing Ferdinand Lundberg's "Cracks in the Constitution"

  • “To these people I have been a kind of amanuensis: they have dictated their stories to me and I have retold them.”

    The New York Review of Books

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Comments

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  • sionnach It's interesting that the "related words" function is not symmetric. alguacil shows up as being related to amanuensis, but amanuensis is not listed as being related to alguacil. Aug 12, 2011

  • sionnach
    In Norway, amanuensis is an academic rank of a lecturer without a doctorate, and this title is going out of use. Førsteamanuensis (Norwegian for "first amanuensis") is the equivalent of associate professor. Dec 24, 2008

  • alguien What an ugly-looking word. That "nuen," in particular, is killing me. Mar 26, 2007

‘amanuensis’ has been looked up 2837 times, loved by 11 people, added to 98 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.