die Schrift

The core idea of the root was:

cutting, slicing

And very early on it was used in the context of leaving markings or making drawings and eventually, writing things.
In the Latin branch, we have the verb *scribere, which meant to write, which is the origin for words like script, prescribe, subscribe, describe and more.

Here’s a  (incomplete) list:

• script, scripture
• manuscript (“to write by hand”)
• scribe 
• subscribe (“to write under”)
• prescribe (“to write across”)
• inscribe (“to write in”)
• describe (“to write down”)
• ascribe (“write toward”)
• transcribe (“to write over”)
• serif, sans-serif (“little stroke, draw”)