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'Prescribe' means to order or recommend (a doctor prescribes medicine); 'proscribe' means to officially forbid or ban something.
Side-by-side comparison
"Prescribe" means to officially recommend or order a treatment or course of action. A doctor prescribes medicine. A rulebook prescribes procedures to follow.
The doctor prescribed a two-week course of antibiotics and advised complete bed rest.
Company policy prescribes a formal written warning before any disciplinary action.
The constitution prescribes the procedures for amending its own articles.
"Proscribe" means to officially forbid or ban something. It is the opposite of prescribe. "Proscribed organization" = an organization declared illegal by authority.
The organisation was proscribed by the government following a series of violent incidents.
The new law proscribed the use of certain pesticides within fifty kilometres of waterways.
Proscribed speech in public spaces became a major point of contention in the new regulations.
Common mistake
- •"The doctor proscribed bed rest" when meaning ordered is wrong (correct: prescribed).
- •And "The law prescribes certain chemicals" when meaning bans them is wrong (correct: proscribes).
- •These are virtual antonyms: one orders, the other bans.
Trick to remember it
- •"Prescribe" = PRE (before) + scribe (write), the doctor writes before you take the medicine.
- •"Proscribe" = PRO (away) + scribe (write), something written out or banished.
- •PRE = write it in; PRO = write it out.
Quick rule
- •Is it to order, recommend, or prescribe medically? "Prescribe".
- •Is it to officially ban or forbid? "Proscribe".
Did you know?
The Rx symbol on medical prescriptions comes from Latin "recipe", the imperative of "recipere" (to take, to receive): literally "Take this!" Medieval prescriptions began with this order to the patient or pharmacist. PROSCRIBE has a dramatically political origin: in ancient Rome, dictators published "proscription lists" (proscriptio) naming their enemies. Anyone listed could be legally killed and their property confiscated. Sulla, Julius Caesar, and the triumvirs used proscription as a political weapon. From "writing a name on a public exclusion list" comes modern English "proscribe" = to forbid. The same root "scribere" (to write) gives "describe," "subscribe," "inscribe," "transcribe", all acts of writing in different directions.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
The doctor _____ d antibiotics for the infection.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The organisation was _____ d after it was linked to illegal activities.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
One means to receive or agree to something, the other means to exclude or not include.
'Advice' is the guidance you receive (noun); 'advise' is the act of giving that guidance (verb).
'Affect' is the verb meaning to influence something; 'effect' is the noun meaning result or consequence.
'Aisle' is the walkway between rows of seats or shelves; 'isle' is a small island.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy