mirror writingn.
/ˈmɪrə ˌrʌɪtɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈmɪrə(r) ˌraɪdɪŋ/ Reversed writing; writing which appears as though viewed in a mirror; the production of such writing.
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society > communication > writing > system of writing > [noun] > mirror-writing
mirror writing1776
looking-glass writing1879
mirror-script1890
1776 G. Campbell Philos. of Rhetoric I. ii. iii. 420 If the analogy of the language must be preserved in composition, to what kind of reception are the following entitled..homedialect, bellysense, and mirrourwriting?
1881 Brain 4 361 Buchwald and Erlenmeyer have directed attention to what they call Spiegelschrift or mirror-writing.
1898 Mind 7 286 The author shows that although mirror writing is favoured by young children, adults write oftener in the ordinary way.
1924 R. M. Ogden tr. K. Koffka Growth of Mind v. §6. 293 Certain children can read mirror-writing at first just as well as they can ordinary writing.
1969 ‘E. McBain’ Shotgun iii. 35 A blotter was the only other thing on the desk. Carella automatically checked it for any mirror writing that might have been left on it.
1992 Economist 26 Dec. 119/1 One hippocampally damaged patient..learnt how to read mirror writing, an extraordinary feat for a man who could not remember the faces of his nurses.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1776