language and scripting language

"Scripting" language *usually* implies a language thats interpreted as opposed to compiled, with lots of high-level operations for file manipulation, pattern matching, job management, etc. and geared for smaller, housekeeping tasks instead of large, monolithic applications. The distinction is largely artificial, though.

The origin of the term was similar to its meaning in "a movie script tells actors what to do": a scripting language controlled the operation of a normally-interactive program, giving it a sequence of work to do all in one batch. For instance, one could put a series of editing commands in a file, and tell an editor to run that "script" as if those commands had been typed interactively.