Rescriptive
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Pertaining to, or answering the purpose of, a rescript.; Serving to alter an existing law or legal document or arising from such an alteration.
"Thus the Queen's colleges in Ireland, although so framed in their constitution that it is impossible for either Catholic or Protestant youth to be the subjects of religious tampering, have been deemed worthy of a rescriptive denunciation from the Pope himself; as has also the Society of Freemasons , which boasts an existence long prior to the power which has thus denounced it; whilst the "Index Expurgatorius" of the Vatican has cut off, from the perusal of the faithful, some of the most useful,as well as the most sublime, emanations of human genius."
- 2 Pertaining to, or answering the purpose of, a rescript.; Pertaining to or based on reinterpretation
"I prefer to describe it as rescriptive for it assumes sense-making that allows for multiple interpretations and an infinity of the combinations of interpretive strategies that lead to a multiplicity of interpretations."
- 3 Pertaining to, or answering the purpose of, a rescript.; That involves rewriting or conversion to another form.
"The book is rescriptive, rewriting itself all the time."
- 4 Pertaining to, or answering the purpose of, a rescript.; Involving or initiating an additional act of writing
"Besides serving as sites of advice or vehicles of intelligence, early modern letters also function as transactions in an ongoing epistolary conversation, and as prompts to rescriptive action by their readers."
Example
More examples"Thus the Queen's colleges in Ireland, although so framed in their constitution that it is impossible for either Catholic or Protestant youth to be the subjects of religious tampering, have been deemed worthy of a rescriptive denunciation from the Pope himself; as has also the Society of Freemasons , which boasts an existence long prior to the power which has thus denounced it; whilst the "Index Expurgatorius" of the Vatican has cut off, from the perusal of the faithful, some of the most useful,as well as the most sublime, emanations of human genius."
Etymology
From rescript + -ive.
More for "rescriptive"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.