small handn.
/ˈsmɔːl hand/, U.S. /ˈsmɔl ˌ(h)ænd/, /ˈsmɑl ˌ(h)ænd/ 1. Cursive handwriting of small size. Chiefly historical, as opposed to large legal script.
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society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [noun] > small or cramped
small handa1513
niggle1834
micrography1899
a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) II. f. i For consyderacyon also that the sayd boke was of small hande & sore defacyd, yt was the lesse set by.
1623 J. Webster Deuils Law-case ii. i. sig. E Their vanities, Would fill more volume in small hand, Then all the Euidence of Church-land.
1821 Massachusetts Spy 14 Feb. He asked her whether she was most fond of writing prose or poetry. ‘Nary one,’ says she, ‘I writes small hand.’
1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xiv. 134 He would be expected to inform Doctor and Mrs. Blimber, in superfine small-hand, that Mr. P. Dombey would be happy to have the honour of waiting on them.
1860 W. Collins Woman in White (new ed.) I. 125 The handwriting..was..in the cramped, conventional, copybook character, technically termed ‘small hand’.
1997 B. Costello Sel. Lett. Marianne Moore (Introd.) p. x The Rosenbach Museum and Library..lists over 13,500 leaves (often written in small hand on both sides) in this correspondence between the years of 1905..and 1947.
2. Chiefly colloquial. The short hand on a clock or watch that indicates the hours; = hour-hand n. at hour n. Compounds. Cf. big hand n. at big adj. and adv. Compounds 2.
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1818 A. Rees Cycl. (1819) XXXVII. at Watch The upper portion of which pinion..impels the large wheel..that carries the small hand.
1833 F. J. Grund Exercises in Algebra 110 At 1 o'clock the small hand of a clock points at 1, and the large hand at 12.
1919 Washington Post 10 Feb. (Mag. section) 8/1 Would the small hand ever move around to 3 so that the big doors would open and admit him?
2008 S. C. Dilks Her Reason for Being 475 She waited impatiently in the choir room as the small hand slowly moved toward four.
3. More fully small hand paper. A coarse paper used chiefly for wrapping. Now rare.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > material for making paper > paper > [noun] > wrapping-papers
cap-paper1577
packing paper1590
cap1620
German Lombard1712
wrapping-paper1715
butter paper1727
whitey-brown1761
kitchen paper?1782
emporetic1790
tea-paper1814
needle paper1852
small hand1853
grocer's paper1861
tobacco paper1877
grocery-paper1883
greaseproof paper1894
chip paper1935
toffee paper1958
1853 R. J. Herring Lect. Origin, Manuf., & Importance Paper 23 The ordinary brown papers, the whited brown, or small hand quality, and the blues and purples used by grocers... Under the characteristic names of coarse papers, there are kent cap, bag cap,..and casing of various dimensions, as also cartridges, with other descriptive names, besides small hand, middle hand, lumber hand, [etc.].
1859 Jackson's Oxf. Jrnl. 19 Feb. 4/5 (advt.) To grocers and others. 132 Reams of Bag-Cap, Royal-hand, & Double Small-hand Paper, to be sold by auction.
1859 Stationer's Hand-Bk. 84 Double Small Hand, Grocers', this is a paper of the same size only as the ordinary small hand, but differing in every other particular, it being of that quality known as sugar paper.
1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 127 Small hand paper, a common machine-made paper, generally straw-coloured, used for post wrappers and such purposes.
1907 C. Beadle Chapters on Papermaking IV. iv. 46 I have seen it done in this way, and made a fine small hand paper.
1957 Pulp & Paper Mag. Canada Nov. 105 A single small hand is 20 x 15 inches, and double small hand in the very un-uniform ratios of 29 x 20, 23 x 17, 28 x 18, 21 x 13, and 31 x 21 inches.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1513