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superscription. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
superscription, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
superscription in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle French superscription, or its source, Late Latin superscriptio, from superscribere.
Pronunciation
Noun
superscription (countable and uncountable, plural superscriptions)
- Something written (or engraved) on the surface, outside, or above something else; specifically, an address on a letter, envelope, etc.
1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, .”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J M for John Starkey , →OCLC, page 19, lines 190–194:Hovv counterfeit a coin they are vvho friends / Bear in their Superſcription (of the moſt / I vvould be underſtood) in proſperous days / They ſvvarm, but in adverſe vvithdravv their head / Not to be found, though ſought.
- 1930, Pearl S. Buck, East Wind: West Wind, Moyer Bell, page 124:
- Its superscription was my name, and the name of the sender, my mother.
1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1140:Schwartz glanced at the printed superscription on the envelope and grumbled as he put the envelope away in his overcoat pocket, to read at leisure.
- An editorial addition at the beginning, often indicating the authorship of a piece.
- 1911, Encyclopædia Britannica
- By a pure error, or perhaps through a confusion in the traditions, Achish the Philistine (of Gath, 1 Sam. xxi., xxvii.), to whom David fled, is called Abimelech in the superscription to Psalm 34.
- The act of superscribing.
Translations
Something written (or engraved) on the surface
See also