sub·scribe / səbˈskrīb/ • v. 1. [intr.] arrange to receive something regularly, typically a publication, by paying in advance: subscribe to the magazine for twelve months and receive a free T-shirt. ∎  arrange for access to an online service: I subscribe to an Internet newsgroup. ∎  (subscribe to) fig. express or feel agreement with (an idea or proposal): we prefer to subscribe to an alternative explanation. ∎  [tr.] apply to participate in: the course has been fully subscribed. ∎  apply for or undertake to pay for an offering of shares of stock: investors would subscribe electronically to the initial stock offerings | [tr.] yesterday's offering was fully subscribed. ∎  [tr.] (of a bookseller) agree before publication to take (a certain number of copies of a book): most of the first print run of 15,000 copies has been subscribed.2. [tr.] formal sign (a will, contract, or other document): he subscribed the will as a witness. ∎  sign (one's name) on such a document.DERIVATIVES: sub·scrib·er n.ORIGIN: late Middle English (in the sense ‘sign at the bottom of a document’): from Latin subscribere, from sub- ‘under’ + scribere ‘write.’

subscribe write (one's name) on XV; intr. w. to XVI; promise over one's signature to pay XVII. — L. subscrībere, f, SUB- + scrībere write.
So subscript sb. †signature XVIII; adj. written underneath XIX. — L. subscriptus, pp. of subscrībere. subscription signature at end of a document XV; declaration of assent XVI; contribution to a fund of money XVII. — L.

SUBSCRIBE

To write underneath; to put a signature at the end of a printed or written instrument.

A subscribing witness is an individual who either sees the execution of a writing or hears its acknowledgment and signs his or her name as a witness upon the request of the executor of the agreement.

In relation to the law of corporations, a subscriber is one who has made an agreement to take a portion of the original issue of corporate stock.