longhandn.adj.
/ˈlɒŋhand/, U.S. /ˈlɔŋˌ(h)ænd/, /ˈlɑŋˌ(h)ænd/ A. n.
Ordinary handwriting, in which words are written in full, as distinguished from shorthand or (now more usually) typescript or printing.In quot. 1651: ordinary handwriting as distinguished from code or cipher.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [noun] > ordinary handwriting
longhand1651
1651 C. Love Case 11 I writ it in long hand, for I never used Cypher or Character in all my life.
1666 S. Pepys Diary 17 Nov. (1972) VII. 374 So as I can read it [sc. a shorthand memorandum] to-morrow to Sir W. Coventry, and then come home and he read to me, while I take it in longhand.
1712 F. Tanner Plainest, Easiest, & Prettiest Method Short-hand 25 Even in Long-Hand oftentimes equivocal abbreviations are often written.
1776 Universal Short-hand i. 5 Experience has taught quick writers even of long-hand, that the joining all the letters of a word together contributes much to dispatch.
1864 Social Sci. Rev. 224 Many years must necessarily elapse before phonography will entirely supersede the longhand now in use.
1888 Times (Weekly ed.) 7 Dec. 20/3 Did you take notes in longhand of the speeches?
1938 E. J. Morley H. C. Robinson on Bks. & Writers I. 37 Passages between angle brackets are..in a mixture of shorthand and longhand in the manuscript.
1956 P. H. Johnson Last Resort (1970) 10 I wrote in longhand and did not type them.
2007 Northern Echo (Nexis) 30 Jan. 10 The way he writes is prehistoric—first in longhand then on a decrepit electric typewriter.
B. adj.
Designating ordinary handwriting, in which words are written out in full, as distinguished from shorthand or (now more usually) typescript or printing; of or relating to such handwriting.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [adjective] > others
bastard1524
secretary1571
Gothical1612
Gothicc1660
Longobardic1677
Lombardic1697
Langobardic1724
longhand1729
rustic1768
Lombard1833
Carlovingian1853
mogigraphic1857
Carolingian1881
Beneventan1882
hand-printed1882
insular1908
script1920
1729 in A. Gavin Master-key to Popery (ed. 3) Advt. Books lately Published…An Abbreviation of Long-hand Writing, by Sr. Tho. Moore Kt.
1731 J. Byrom in Remains Hist. & Lit. Lancaster & Chester (1855) XXXIV. 491 The instrument that it was to be tossed out by, a plain country pikel, pikehill—how do you spell it, you longhand folks?
1845 Phonotypic Jrnl. Feb. 43 We are endeavouring to construct a long-hand alphabet that shall harmonize with the one used for printing.
1884 Law Times 24 May 55/2 There are obvious reasons why a longhand note cannot always be relied upon to contain every material point in the evidence.
1897 Westm. Gaz. 22 Jan. 7/1 Sir Isaac Pitman's efforts in the cause of the reform of longhand spelling.
1954 Changing Times Oct. 20/1 Twenty to 30 words a minute is about normal longhand speed.
2010 S. Thirsk Not quite White (2011) 162 You writing it out in longhand Welsh..for me to tap laboriously into the keyboard.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1651