'Scribble' is Latin for 'to write carelessly' — a diminutive frequentative of 'scribere' (to write).
To write or draw carelessly or hurriedly; to produce illegible or meaningless marks with a pen or pencil.
From Medieval Latin scribillāre (to write carelessly), a frequentative diminutive of Latin scrībere (to write, to draw, to mark), from PIE *skrībh- (to cut, to scratch, to incise), an extended form of *(s)ker- (to cut). The Proto-Indo-European root *(s)ker- meant to cut or scratch, and its extended form *skrībh- specifically denoted the scratching of marks — the physical action that preceded writing. Latin scrībere preserved this connection between cutting and writing, as the earliest Roman writing was scratched into wax tablets with a stylus. The Medieval Latin frequentative scribillāre added the sense
Many famous literary manuscripts are covered in scribbles. James Joyce's notebooks for 'Ulysses' are so densely scribbled — with crossed-out words, marginal additions, and seemingly random doodles — that scholars have spent decades deciphering them. The irony is that what begins as a scribble can end as a masterpiece, and what looks like careless writing