Ascribe Definition
ə-skrīb
ascribed, ascribes, ascribing
verb
ascribed, ascribes, ascribing
To regard as arising from a specified cause or source.
American Heritage
To assign (something) to a supposed cause; impute; attribute.
Webster's New World
To regard as belonging to or produced by a specified agent, place, or time.
Ascribed the poem to Shakespeare.
American Heritage
To regard (something) as belonging to or coming from someone.
Poems that were ascribed to Homer.
Webster's New World
To attribute a cause or characteristic to someone or something.
One may ascribe these problems to the federal government; however, at this stage it is unclear what caused them.
Wiktionary
Origin of Ascribe
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From Old French ascrivre (“inscribe, attribute, impute”), from Latin āscrībō, from ad (“to”) + scrībō (“write”), from Proto-Indo-European *skrep-, *skreb- (“to engrave”). Cognate with Old English screpan (“to scrape, scratch”).
From Wiktionary
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Middle English ascriben from Old French ascrivre from Latin ascrībere ad- ad- scrībere to write skrībh- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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