Old English 'writan' meant 'to scratch, score' — preserving the memory of carving runes into wood, not using ink.
To form letters, words, or symbols on a surface with an instrument; to compose text.
From Old English 'wrītan' meaning 'to score, scratch, draw, inscribe,' from Proto-Germanic *wrītaną (to tear, scratch). The original meaning was not about ink and letters but about scratching or carving marks into a hard surface — wood, bone, or bark. This reflects the earliest Germanic writing practice of incising runes into material. The sense 'to form letters' emerged only as ink-based writing replaced carving, but the word preserved the memory