writerlyadj.
/ˈrʌɪtəli/, U.S. /ˈraɪdərli/ 1. Of, appropriate to, or characteristic of a writer.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > writer or author > [adjective]
authorical1731
authorial1757
authorly1784
authorish1817
auctorial1821
writerly1957
1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Aug. p. xxxvii/2 Serious Canadian writers at present are firmly resolved to concentrate upon the writerly virtues.
1965 Observer 9 May 26/4 The oldest of writerly practices: taking his material from the strangeness of life.
1982 Listener 23 Dec. 56/3 Saunders dissecting writerly old age and the onset of what appears to be terminal cynicism.
1996 Guardian 14 Dec. 19/3 His passionate writerly curiosity about whatever the world presented to him.
2016 Writers' & Artists' Yearbk. 2017 255 I decided to give myself a pseudonym... Mary Thorntons sounded altogether more writerly than Rachel Joyce.
2. Of writing or its style: characterized by the (self-conscious) use of markedly literary language or techniques. Also of a writer: having or noted for such a writing style.In later use sometimes coloured by sense 3.
Π
1958 Spectator 24 Jan. 114/1 It takes a well-organized climax..to unmask this..young man and round off a clever and writerly book.
1970 Los Angeles Times 25 Oct. 9/2 His kind of effects are considered suspect these days. It is always possible to say of such a writer that he is writerly, the same that painters are accused of being painterly.
1989 Times Reporter (Dover, Ohio) 8 Oct. c4/5 The least writerly of our major authors, Bellow is one for whom the written word most closely approximates the spoken word.
1996 Observer 20 Oct. Rev. section 17/6 The prose is more writerly, the sentences longer and the style more self-conscious.
2010 M. M. Murphy Scout, Atticus & Boo (2015) 162 To Kill a Mockingbird isn't a writerly book. There are not a whole lot of verbal pyrotechnics.
3. Literary Theory. Of a text: admitting of a range of possible interpretations; demanding the active engagement of the reader; = open adj. 27e. Usually opposed to readerly adj. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > [adjective] > other specific style
judicial1532
heroic1590
judiciary1603
wild1645
heroi-comic1708
mock-heroic1708
heroi-comical1712
flebilea1734
prosai-comi-epic1749
lusory1779
sulphureous1791
harlequinic1804
mock-heroical1825
newspaperish1825
marmoreal1892
kailyard1895
freestyle1906
paperback1921
nouny1926
Time-ese1947
nounal1952
kitchen sink1959
effectist1961
writerly1974
dirty realist1984
1974 R. Miller tr. R. Barthes S/Z 5 The writerly text [Fr. texte scriptible] is ourselves writing, before the infinite play of the world..is traversed, intersected, stopped, plasticized by some singular system..which reduces..the infinity of languages.
1981 Contemp. Lit. 22 304 Writerly works, because they depend so much on the ‘play’ of language, seem, by their very nature,..to generate multiple meanings.
1999 J. D. Andriano Immortal Monster Introd. p. xvii Postmodernist productions..are certainly more overtly writerly than what Barthes calls classic texts.
2007 G. Aichele in A. W. Hass et al. Oxf. Handbk. Eng. Lit. & Theol. iii. xix. 318 Ideological influence on reading is more evident in relation to relatively writerly texts..where the reader must work harder to make sense of the text.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2021).
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adj.1957