These two verbs have opposite meanings, but not based on their prefixes pre- and pro-, as you might expect. Scribe means to write down, so both prescribe and proscribe refer to the actions of laws, rules, and orders, or sometimes suggestions.
Prescribe means telling what should be done, and proscribe means telling what should not be done – what is forbidden.
Prescribe is best known as the action of a doctor who gives an order for a medication or treatment (a prescription):
The doctor prescribed two pills at bedtime and a hot bath.
Proscribe means forbid:
Alcohol is proscribed for people taking some medications.
Graffitti is proscribed in this community.
As you can see, proscribe is more general in meaning than prescribe. However, prescribe is not only for the action of a doctor; one can prescribe solutions to any kind of problem.
More Examples of “Prescribe” in a Sentence
- School psychologists may not themselves prescribe medication but often encourage its use and direct parents to prescribing physicians.
- As of July 2018, two doctors have been licensed to prescribe the drug.
- This status allows doctors to prescribe the vaccine while it undergoes further testing.
- To prescribe something that can harm without helping violates our most fundamental oath.
- Currently, the VA does not officially recommend or prescribe medical cannabis for any ailments.
More Examples of “Proscribe” in a Sentence
- So too is a journalism that attempts to proscribe entire fields of expression.
- We proscribe all those without fearing an end to free speech.
- Their codes of ethics or statements may proscribe anthropologists from giving secret briefings.
- They could ban medication abortions or proscribe procedures sought for reasons that lawmakers view as objectionable.
- In the same year he officially began to proscribe the practice of paganism.