Rescript comes from Latin rescriptum ('a written reply'), the neuter past participle of rescribere ('to write back'), from re- ('back') + scribere ('to write'). The historical chain includes Latin rescriptum, Latin scribere, and Proto-Indo-European *skreybʰ-. The quoted older senses, "a written reply", "to write back", "back", and "to write", supply the semantic anchors for rescript. The formation is best read as compound, participial, and borrowed: the word rescript carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "an official edict or written answer from an authority". Related English forms include script, scripture, scribe, and inscribe. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.