man·u·script / ˈmanyəˌskript/ • n. a book, document, or piece of music written by hand rather than typed or printed: an illuminated manuscript. ∎  an author's text that has not yet been published: preparing the final manuscript her autobiography remained in manuscript.ORIGIN: late 16th cent.: from medieval Latin manuscriptus, from manu ‘by hand’ + scriptus ‘written’ (past participle of scribere).

manuscript adj. written by hand; sb. writing; codex. XVI. — medL. manūscrīptus, i.e. manū with the hand and scrīptus, pp. of scrībere write; see MANU-, SCRIBE.