amanuensis:
(plural: amanuenses; pronunciation: the letters ‘nu’ rhyme with the word “new” — for the right pronunciation, please click here) [For the pronunciation of ‘amanuenses’, please click here.]
an amanuensis (R) helping a blind students (L) take an exam by writing down the answers
(old or formal usage) a person whose job is to write down what another person says or to copy the text another person has written, especially during the making of a book; a secretary; a person who takes down dictation; a scribe; a copyist;
In the present usage, a person who helps another person in writing down some information, for example, an educated person who helps a disabled or crippled person by writing down the answers dictated by that person in an examination.
Stephen Hawking and his assistant & amanuensis Judith Croasdell (R)
There are so many documents to be made into copies that our office needs not one amanuensis but several to make copies of them.
These days, amanuenses are not needed any more because busy bosses are all using electronic devices such as tape-recorders and voice recorders to copy down their dictations!
While I was teaching at Menilik II Higher Secondary School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I often acted as an amanuensis for the blind students in writing their exams.
