'Transcribe' is Latin for 'write across' — now extended from copying text to converting DNA to RNA.
To put spoken words or music into written or printed form; to copy text from one medium or format to another.
From Latin 'transcribere' (to copy out, to transfer in writing), composed of 'trans-' (across, over) + 'scribere' (to write, to scratch). The PIE root is *skerb(h)- or *skrībh- (to scratch, to cut, to engrave), rooted in the physical act of incising marks into stone, clay, or wax tablets. Roman scribes used 'transcribere' to mean copying official records and transferring entries between
In molecular biology, 'transcription' refers to the process by which a cell copies genetic information from DNA to RNA — a deliberate metaphor borrowed from the etymological sense of 'writing across.' The cell literally 'transcribes' a gene, producing an RNA copy that carries the genetic message to another part of the cell, just as a medieval scribe would copy a manuscript from one page to another.