writing

writ·ing

W0241600 (rī′tĭng)n.1. a. The act or process of producing and recording words in a form that can be read and understood: At first, most students find writing difficult.b. The occupation or style of someone who writes, especially for publication.2. Written form: Put it in writing.3. Handwriting; penmanship: writing that has many flourishes.4. Something written, especially:a. Meaningful letters or characters that constitute readable matter: erased the writing on the blackboard.b. A written work, especially a literary composition: collected all the author's writings.5. Writings(used with a sing. or pl. verb) Bible The third of the three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures, composed of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. See Table at Bible.

writing

(ˈraɪtɪŋ) n1. (Letters of the Alphabet (Foreign)) a group of letters or symbols written or marked on a surface as a means of communicating ideas by making each symbol stand for an idea, concept, or thing, by using each symbol to represent a set of sounds grouped into syllables (syllabic writing), or by regarding each symbol as corresponding roughly or exactly to each of the sounds in the language (alphabetic writing). See also ideogram2. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) short for handwriting3. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) anything expressed in letters, esp a literary composition4. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) the work of a writer5. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) literary style, art, or practice6. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) written form: give it to me in writing. 7. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) (modifier) related to or used in writing: writing ink. 8. writing on the wall a sign or signs of approaching disaster[sense 8: allusion to Daniel 5:5]

writ•ing

(ˈraɪ tɪŋ)

n. 1. the act of a person or thing that writes. 2. matter written with a pen or the like: His writing is illegible. 3. written form: Put the agreement in writing. 4. a legal document, as a contract or deed. 5. an inscription. 6. literary or musical composition. 7. the style, form, quality, etc., of such composition. 8. the profession of a writer. 9. the Writings, Hagiographa. [1175–1225]

Writing

See also alphabet; authors; books; language; literature; manuscripts; reading; spelling.
acrology1. the use of a symbol to represent phonetically the initial sound (syllable or letter) of the name of an object, as A is the flrst sound of Greek alpha.
2. the use of the name of the object as the name of the symbol representing its initial sound, as A in Greek is called alpha “ox.” Also called acrophony. — acrologic, adj.autographythe act of writing something by hand. — autographer, n. — autographic, adj. — autographically, adv.biblioticsthe art or science of analyzing handwriting, especially that of manuscripts with the purpose of establishing their authorship or authenticity. — bibliotist, n. — bibliotic, adj.brachygraphyan abbreviated writing; shorthand. — brachygraphic, adj.cacography1. bad handwriting. Cf. calligraphy.
2. the possession of poor spelling skills. See also orthography. — cacographer, n. — cacographic, cacographical, adj.calligraphy1. the art of beautiful penmanship.
2. handwriting in general.
3. good handwriting skills. Cf. cacography.
4. a script of a high aesthetic value produced by brush, especially that of Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic origin. — calligrapher, calligraphist, n. — calligraphic, calligraphical, adj.chirography, cheirography1. the penmanship of a person, especially when used in an important document, as in an apostolic letter written and signed by the pope.
2. the art of beautiful penmanship; calligraphy. — chirograph, chirographer, n. — chirographic, chirographical, adj.chrysography1. the art of writing in inks containing gold or silver in suspension.
2. the gold writing produced in this way. — chrysographer, n.cryptography1. the science or study of secret writing, especially code and cipher systems.
2. the procedures and methods of making and using secret languages, as codes or ciphers. — cryptographer, cryptographist, n. — cryptographic, cryptographical, cryptographal, adj.curiologics, curiologythe representation of things or sounds by means of their pictures instead of by symbols or words, as in hieroglyphics or a rebus. — curiologic, curiological, adj.engrossment1. a document or other piece of writing in a large, bold hand.
2. a formal document, as a proclamation, suitably written in a calligraphic hand and often illuminated. — engrosser, n.grammalogueShorthand, a word that is represented by a single symbol or character.graphanalysisthe reading of character or personality from a person’s handwriting. Cf. graphology. — graphanalyst, n.graphemicsLinguistics. the study of systems of writing and their relationship to the systems of the languages they represent. Also called graphonomy. — graphemic, adj.graphiologythe art or craft of writing or delineating. — graphiologist, n.graphologythe study of handwriting, especially as regarded as an expression of character. Cf. graphanalysis. — graphologist, n. — graphologic, graphological, adj.graphomaniaan obsession with writing.graphonomygraphology.graphopathologyPsychology. the study of handwriting as a symptom of mental or emotional disorder. — graphopathologist, n. — graphopathological, adj.graphophobiaa dislike for writing.graphorrhea1. writing in excessive amounts, sometimes incoherently.
2. extreme wordiness in writing.graptomancya form of divination involving the examination of a person’s handwriting.haplographythe accidental omission in writing or copying of one or more adjacent and similar letters, syllables, words, or lines, as tagme for tagmeme.hieroglyphologythe study of hieroglyphic writing, or a system employing a conventionalized pictographic script, esp. that used by the ancient Egyptians. — hieroglyphologist, n.hierogramsacred writing or a sacred character or symbol. — hierogrammatist, n. — hierogrammatic, hierogrammatical, adj.hierographyRare. sacred writing; hierograms and the art of writing them. — hierographer, n. — hierographic, hierographical, adj.homographythe process of using a distinct character to represent each sound. — homographic, adj.iconomaticisma form of writing regarded as midway between picture writing, as hieroglyphics, and phonetic writing in which the names of the symbols are not the names of the objects they depict but phonetic elements only. — iconomatic, adj.ideographya form of writing in which a written symbol represents an object rather than a word or speech sound. — ideographic, ideographical, adj.isographyRare. the imitation of another person’s handwriting. — isographic, isographical, adj.lipographythe avoidance of a certain letter or syllable in a text. — lipogram, n.literationthe act or process of representing with letters.logograma sign or symbol used to represent a word, as $ for dollar. Also logograph. — logographic, adj.logographya method of reporting spoken language in longhand, esp. one using several reporters taking down a few words in succession. — logographer, n. — logographic, adj.macrographyabnormally large handwriting, often the result of a nervous disorder in the writer.micrographan apparatus used for miniature writing or drawing. — micrography, n.micrographythe art or technique of writing with extremely small characters. — micrographic, adj.mogigraphyPathology. physical difficulty in writing. — mogigraphic, adj.monogramtwo or more letters, as initials, formed into a design to be placed on clothing, notepaper, etc., or as a crest. See also ornamentation. — monogrammatic, monogrammatical, adj.mutacismmytacism.mytacismexcessive use of or fondness for, or incorrect use of the letter m and the sound it represents. Also mutacism.neographyRare. a new or novel way of writing.noctographa writing frame designed for use by blind people.nomancya form of divination involving the examination of letters, possibly from a graphological standpoint. Also onomancy.ogham, ogam1. an alphabetical script originally used for inscriptions in the Irish language from the 5th to the 10th centuries.
2. any of the 20 characters of this script.
3. an inscription in this script. — oghamist, ogamist, n.onomancy, onomomancynomancy.opisthography1. the practice of writing on both sides of the object used as a surface, as papyrus or stone.
2. the writing done in this fashion. — opisthography, n.paleography, palaeography1. ancient forms of writing, as in inscriptions, documents, and manuscripts.
2. the study of ancient writings, including decipherment, translation, and determination of age and date. — paleographer, palaeographer, n. — paleographic, palaeographic, adj.parapha flourish or other embellishment made after a signature, either as idiosyncrasy or to protect against forgery.penmanship1. the art or skill of handwriting or writing with a pen.
2. a particular person’s manner or characteristic style of handwriting.phonograma symbol or character, as in shorthand, that represents a word, syllable, or sound.phonography1. any system of phonetic shorthand, as that of Pitman.
2. phonetic spelling, writing, or shorthand. — phonographer, phonographist, n. — phonographic, adj.phraseograma character or symbol, as in shorthand, that represents a phrase. Cf. phraseograph.phraseographa phrase that can be represented by a phraseogram. Cf. phraseogram.pictographythe use of pictorial symbols to communicate; picture writing with symbols that may be either ideographic or phonetic in function. — pictograph, n. — pictographic, adj.runecraftthe knowledge of runes and their interpretation; skill or expertise with runes.runologythe study of runes and runic writing. — runologist, n. — runological, adj.scotographan instrument for writing when unable to see.scribblement1. illegible handwriting.
2. the work of an inferior or untalented author.scribomaniaa mania for writingscriptionRare. handwriting, especially a particular style of handwriting such as that of a particular person or period.scrivenerythe art and practice of the scrivener or copyist. — scrivener, n.sematographythe use of symbols other than letters in writing. — sematographic, adj.semeiography1. a system of symbolic notation. Also semiography. — semeiographic, semeiographical, adj.sphenographyRare. the art of writing and deciphering cuneiform characters. — sphenographer, sphenographist, n. — sphenographic, adj.stelography1. the practice of chiseling commemorative inscriptions in pillars, tablets, and stelae.
2. any inscription so done. — stelographic, adj.stenographythe art of writing in shorthand. — stenographer, stenographist, n. — stenographic, stenographical, adj.stenotypya phonographic shorthand in which alphabetic letters, produced by hand or a special machine, are used to represent words and phrases. — stenotypist, n. — stenotypic, adj.stylographythe art of drawing, writing, or engraving with a stylus or similar instrument. — stylographic, stylographical, adj.syllabary1. a table of syllables, as might be used for teaching a language.
2. a system of characters or symbols representing syllables instead of individual sounds. Also syllabarium.syllabism1. the use of characters in writing that represent syllables rather than individual sounds, as in the Cherokee syllabary.
2. a division of a word into syllables.tachygraphy1. the ancient Greek and Roman shorthand systems.
2. cursive writing. — tachygrapher, tachygraphist, n. — tachygraphic, tachygraphical, adj.telautographythe transmission of writing or drawing such that the movements of the receiving pen copy those of the transmitting pen or pencil, yielding a facsimile reproduction at the receiving end. — telautograph, n. — telautographic, adj.unciala form of large, rounded script found in Latin and Greek manuscripts from the 3rd or 4th century until the 10th century. — uncial, adj.

Writers/Writing

See Also: POETS/POETRY

The act of writing itself is done in secret, like masturbation —Stephen King
Alliteration is like ivy, some of it is poison —Delmore Schwartz
As a baker bakes more bread than brown; or as a tumbler tumbles up and down; so does our author, rummaging his brain, by various methods try to entertain —Henry Fielding
An author at work is like an oyster, clam-quiet and busy —Rumer Godden
An author introduced to people who have read, or who say they have read his books, always feels like a man taken for the first time to be shown to his future wife’s relations —Jerome K. Jerome
An author is like a baker; it is for him to make the sweets, and others to buy and enjoy them —Leigh Hunt
Authors are like cattle going to a fair: those of the same field can never move on without butting one another —Walter Savage Landor
Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old; it is the rust we value, not the gold —Alexander Pope
An author who speaks of his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children —Benjamin Disraeli
Being an author is like treading water in the middle of the ocean; you can never stop, you can never stop treading water —Delmore Schwartz
Being a writer in a library is rather like being a eunuch in a harem —John Braine, New York Times, Oct. 7, 1961
A biographer is like a contractor who builds roads: it’s terribly messy, mud everywhere, and when you get done, people travel over the road at a fast clip —Arthur Wilson
Churn out books as though his days were numbered —Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, February 14, 1987
In reviewing Anthony Burgess’ autobiography, Little Wilson and Big God, Kakutani uses this simile to introduce her recounting the story of how Burgess began writing when he thought that his days were in fact numbered.
Clear writers, like fountains, do not seem so deep as they are —Walter Savage Landor
The simile is followed by this about the less-than-clear: “The turbid look the most profound.”
A collection of essays is a collection of variations —Elizabeth Hardwick
The essayist is kind of poet in prose —Alexander Smith
Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast —Logan Pearsall Smith
For the blocked or hesitant, the advent of the computer is like the advent of spring: the frozen river surges, the hard earth flowers —Edward Mendelson reporting on computers for writers, Yale Review, 1985
Getting a book published without a literary agent is like swimming dangerous waters without a shark repellent —Rae Lawrence, New York Times Magazine, July 5, 1987
Lawrence’s simile serves to introduce her experience in finding and choosing a literary agent for her first novel.
Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Grammar is an art. Style is a gift. You are born with your style, just as you are born with your voice —Anatole France
The great writer finds style as the mystic finds God, in his own soul —Havelock Ellis
Hiring someone to write your autobiography is like hiring someone to take a bath for you —Mae West, quoted in Bookviews, February 11, 1977
I can get a kind of tension when I’m writing a short story [as compared to a novel], like I’m pulling on a rope and know where the rope is attached —Alice Munro, quoted New York Times Book Review, September 14, 1986
I get a thing I call sentence-fever that must be like buck-fever; it’s a sort of intense literary self-consciousness that comes when I try to force myself —F. Scott Fitzgerald
(I enjoy the hell out of writing because) it’s [writing] like an Easter egg hunt. Here’s 50 pages and you say, “Oh, Christ, where is it? Then on the 51st page, it’ll work” —John D. MacDonald
Like thrifty French cooks, waste nothing —Leslie Garis, New York Times Magazine, February 8, 1987
Garis used the simile to describe Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne’s extensive note taking.
A long preface to a short treatise is like a high hat crowning a low brow —Zevi Hirsh Somerhausen
Paraphrased for more modern English usage from “Like a high hat crowning a low brow is a long preface to a short treatise.”
Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in little houses —William Shenstone
Method in writing is like ceremony in living too often used to supply the want of better things —Thomas Killigrew
Minor characters [in scripts] are rather like knights in chess: limited in movement, but handy in their capacity for quick turns, for fixing situations —John Fowles
A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because the door opens —John Updike
Nobody can write a real drama who hasn’t smelled the grease paint; it’s like somebody composing who’s never played an instrument —Mary McCarthy
Novels, like human beings, usually have their beginnings in the dark —Rita Mae Brown
People who write books take as much punishment as prizefighters —Norman Mailer
A pin has as much head as some authors and a great deal more point —George D. Prentice
The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business —John Steinbeck
The profession of writing is wrong, like smoking cigarettes, bad for your health, a diminisher of life expectancy —William Saroyan
Prose as smooth and burnished as well-oiled furniture —A. R. Gurney Jr., New York Times Book Review, 1985
The author of this smooth prose is Louis Auchincloss.
Prose consists of … phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house —George Orwell
Prose is like music, every word must be placed for sound, color and nuance —James G. Huneker
A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end —Henry David Thoreau
Sometimes writing a recipe takes me a whole day … to communicate it correctly. It’s like writing a little short story —Julia Childs
To inclose him (a fictional character) as irradiantly as amber does the fly and yet the while to preserve every detail of his being has, of all tasks, ever been the dearest to me —Stefan Zweig
In his foreword to a collection of stories and novelettes, Zweig used this simile to explain that he considers his short fiction as much an accomplishment as his more “spacious” works.
Typing your own manuscript for submission is a lot like dressing to see that old lover who left you five years ago —Ira Wood
In his novel, The Kitchen Man, Wood expands the simile as follows: “Ready to walk out the door you stop one last time at the mirror, just to be sure they’re going to regret what they walked out on. Well, maybe the belt is wrong, you think, throwing it on the bed, pulling out another. No, these old shoes won’t do, too dowdy. After an hour, you’re stripped to your socks and in tears, absolutely sure now that you are the perfect mess they said you were. And so your manuscript will be if you don’t fight every urge to better every sentence.”
A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one —Thomas Carlyle
Words flowed from his pen like sparkling spring water —Yoko Ono, about husband John Lennon’s writing
A writer may take to long words, as young men to beards, to impress —F. L. Lucas
Writers, like teeth, are divided into incisors and grinders —Walter Bagehot
The writer’s work is a little like handwriting. It comes out to be you no matter what you do —John Updike, New York Times, January 18, 1987
The writer who draws his material from a book is like one who borrows money only to lend it —Kahlil Gibran
Writes like a comrade, the kind of friend with whom it is a pleasure to dispute —Jacques Barzun about H. W. Fowler, the author of Modern English Usage, New York Times Book Review, December 12, 1986
Reviewer John Gross in his turn applied the simile to Barzun’s book, A Word Or Two Before You Go.
Writing a first draft is like groping one’s way into a pitch dark room, or overhearing a faint conversation, or telling a joke whose punchline you’ve forgotten —Ted Solotaroff
Writing for a newspaper is like running a revolutionary war; you go into battle not when you are ready but when action offers itself —Norman Mailer
Writing for him was as hard work as catching fleas —Ivan Turgenev
Writing is akin to fortunetelling … you look into someone’s life, read where they have been and predict what will happen to them —Marcia Norman, quoted New York Times Book Review, May 24, 1987
Writing is like building a house —Ellen Gilchrist
Writing is like pulling the trigger of a gun: if you are not loaded, nothing happens —Henry Seidel
Writing is like religion. Every man who feels the call must work out his own salvation —George Horace Lorimer
Writing is like serving a jail sentence, you’re not free until you’ve done time on the rock-heap —Paul Theroux
Writing is like writing a check … it’s easy to write a check if you have enough money in the bank, and writing comes more easily if you have something to say —Sholem Asch
Writing … it is rather like building a house, every separate word is another brick laid into place, cemented to its fellows, and gradually you begin to see the wall beginning to rise, and you know that the rooms inside will take their shape as you intended —Vita Sackville-West
Writing without publishing gets to be like loving someone from afar, delicious for fantasies but thin gruel for a living —Ted Solotaroff
Wrote not without puzzlements and travail, nevertheless as naturally as birds —Cynthia Ozick
You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences —Anatole France
Your article should be like a lady’s skirt: long enough to cover the essentials, and short enough to be interesting —editorial advice to free lancers, PhotoGraphic, January 1987

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	writing - the act of creating written works; "writing was a form of therapy for him"; "it was a matter of disputed authorship"authorship, penning, compositionverbal creation - creating something by the use of speech and languageadoxography - fine writing in praise of trivial or base subjects; "Elizabethan schoolboys were taught adoxography, the art of eruditely praising worthless things"; "adoxography is particularly useful to lawyers"drafting - writing a first version to be filled out and polished laterdramatisation, dramatization - conversion into dramatic form; "the play was a dramatization of a short story"fabrication, fictionalisation, fictionalization - writing in a fictional formhistoriography - the writing of historymetrification - writing a metrical composition (or the metrical structure of a composition)novelisation, novelization - converting something into the form of a novelredaction - the act of putting something in writinglexicography - the act of writing dictionariesversification - the art or practice of writing verseindite, pen, write, compose - produce a literary work; "She composed a poem"; "He wrote four novels"write about, write of, write on - write about a particular topic; "Snow wrote about China"profile - write about; "The author of this article profiles a famous painter"paragraph - write paragraphs; work as a paragrapherdash off, fling off, scratch off, toss off, knock off - write quickly; "She dashed off a note to her husband saying she would not be home for supper"; "He scratched off a thank-you note to the hostess"rewrite - rewrite so as to make fit to suit a new or different purpose; "re-write a play for use in schools"write copy - write for commercial publications; "She writes copy for Harper's Bazaar"dramatise, dramatize, adopt - put into dramatic form; "adopt a book for a screenplay"draft, outline - draw up an outline or sketch for something; "draft a speech"author - be the author of; "She authored this play"co-author - be a co-author on (a book, a paper)ghostwrite, ghost - write for someone else; "How many books have you ghostwritten so far?"annotate, footnote - add explanatory notes to or supply with critical comments; "The scholar annotated the early edition of a famous novel"reference, cite - refer to; "he referenced his colleagues' work"write out, write up - put into writing; write in complete form; "write out a contract"script - write a script for; "The playwright scripted the movie"
	2.	writing - the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect); "the writing in her novels is excellent"; "that editorial was a fine piece of writing"piece of writing, written materialbowdlerisation, bowdlerization - written material that has been bowdlerizedtitle - (usually plural) written material introduced into a movie or TV show to give credits or represent dialogue or explain an action; "the titles go by faster than I can read"black and white, written communication, written language - communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten)cryptogram, secret writing, cryptograph - a piece of writing in code or cipherrewrite, revision, rescript - something that has been written again; "the rewrite was much better"literary composition, literary work - imaginative or creative writingliterature - creative writing of recognized artistic valueliterature - published writings in a particular style on a particular subject; "the technical literature"; "one aspect of Waterloo has not yet been treated in the literature"matter - written works (especially in books or magazines); "he always took some reading matter with him on the plane"literary criticism, criticism - a written evaluation of a work of literaturesection, subdivision - a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical); "he always turns first to the business section"; "the history of this work is discussed in the next section"epilog, epilogue - a short passage added at the end of a literary work; "the epilogue told what eventually happened to the main characters"paragraph - one of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented linediary, journal - a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observationsinscription, lettering - letters inscribed (especially words engraved or carved) on somethingmanuscript, ms - the form of a literary work submitted for publicationautograph - something written by one's own handtreatise - a formal expositionadaptation, version - a written work (as a novel) that has been recast in a new form; "the play is an adaptation of a short novel"essay - an analytic or interpretive literary compositionediting, redaction - putting something (as a literary work or a legislative bill) into acceptable formreligious text, religious writing, sacred text, sacred writing - writing that is venerated for the worship of a deityscreed - a long piece of writingdocument, papers, written document - writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature)dramatic composition, dramatic work - a play for performance on the stage or television or in a movie etc.dithyramb - a wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writingplagiarism - a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own worktranscript - something that has been transcribed; a written record (usually typewritten) of dictated or recorded speech; "he read a transcript of the interrogation"; "you can obtain a transcript of this radio program by sending a self-addressed envelope to the station"
	3.	writing - (usually plural) the collected work of an author; "the idea occurs with increasing frequency in Hemingway's writings"body of work, oeuvre, work - the total output of a writer or artist (or a substantial part of it); "he studied the entire Wagnerian oeuvre"; "Picasso's work can be divided into periods"plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than oneblack and white, written communication, written language - communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten)patristics, patrology - the writings of the early Church Fathers
	4.	writing - letters or symbols that are written or imprinted on a surface to represent the sounds or words of a language; "he turned the paper over so the writing wouldn't show"; "the doctor's writing was illegible"black and white, written communication, written language - communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten)orthography, writing system - a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbolscoding system - a system of signals used to represent letters or numbers in transmitting messagescapitalisation, capitalization - writing in capital letterstypewriting, typing - writing done with a typewriterprinting - text handwritten in the style of printed matterhandwriting, script, hand - something written by hand; "she recognized his handwriting"; "his hand was illegible"hieroglyph, hieroglyphic - writing that resembles hieroglyphics (usually by being illegible)skywriting - writing formed in the sky by smoke released from an airplaneprinting process, printing - reproduction by applying ink to paper as for publicationnotation, notational system - a technical system of symbols used to represent special things
	5.	writing - the activity of putting something in written form; "she did the thinking while he did the writing"committal to writingactivity - any specific behavior; "they avoided all recreational activity"coding, steganography, cryptography, secret writing - act of writing in code or cipherhandwriting - the activity of writing by hand; "handwriting can be slow and painful for one with arthritis"inscription - the activity of inscribing (especially carving or engraving) letters or wordsnotation - the activity of representing something by a special system of marks or characters

writing

noun1. script, hand, print, printing, fist (informal), scribble, handwriting, scrawl, calligraphy, longhand, penmanship, chirography It's a little difficult to read your writing.2. documents, works, books, letters, titles, opuses, publications, literature, compositions, belles-lettres Althusser's writings are focused mainly on France.writing on the wall omen, sign, warning, signal, portent, forewarning, ill omen We should have seen the writing on the wall and guessed what was coming.Related words
like graphomania, scribomania
fear graphophobiaQuotations
"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life" [Ernest Hemingway speech, accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature]
"I think writing does come out of a deep well of loneliness and a desire to fill some kind of gap" [Jay McInerney]
"Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small - but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people" [Katherine Mansfield letter]

Translations

书写作品笔体

write

(rait) – past tense wrote (rout) : past participle written (ˈritn) – verb1. to draw (letters or other forms of script) on a surface, especially with a pen or pencil on paper. They wrote their names on a sheet of paper; The child has learned to read and write; Please write in ink.写2. to compose the text of (a book, poem etc). She wrote a book on prehistoric monsters.编写3. to compose a letter (and send it). He has written a letter to me about this matter; I'll write you a long letter about my holiday; I wrote to you last week.写信ˈwriter noun a person who writes, especially for a living. Dickens was a famous English writer; the writer of this letter.作家ˈwriting noun letters or other forms of script giving the written form of (a) language. the Chinese form of writing; I can't read your writing. 书写，笔体 ˈwritings noun plural the collected books, poems, correspondence etc of a particular (usually famous) person. the writings of Plato.著作written (ˈritn) adjective in writing. a written message.书面的ˈwriting-paper noun paper for writing letters etc on. writing-paper and envelopes.信纸write down to record in writing. She wrote down every word he said.记下write out to copy or record in writing. Write this exercise out in your neatest handwriting. 写出，抄写或书写

writing

→ 作品zhCN

writing

writing,

the visible recording of languagelanguage,
systematic communication by vocal symbols. It is a universal characteristic of the human species. Nothing is known of its origin, although scientists have identified a gene that clearly contributes to the human ability to use language.
..... Click the link for more information. peculiar to the human species. Writing enables the transmission of ideas over vast distances of time and space and is a prerequisite of complex civilization. Where, and by whom writing was first developed remains unknown, but scholars place the beginning of writing at 6,000 B.C. The norm of writing is phonemic; i.e., it attempts to symbolize all significant sounds of the language and no others (see phoneticsphonetics
, study of the sounds of languages from three basic points of view. Phonetics studies speech sounds according to their production in the vocal organs (articulatory phonetics), their physical properties (acoustic phonetics), or their effect on the ear (auditory
..... Click the link for more information. ). When the goal is established as one letter for one phoneme (and vice versa), the result is a complete alphabetalphabet
[Gr. alpha-beta, like Eng. ABC], system of writing, theoretically having a one-for-one relation between character (or letter) and phoneme (see phonetics). Few alphabets have achieved the ideal exactness.
..... Click the link for more information. . Few alphabets attain this phonemic ideal, but some ancient ones (e.g., Sanskrit) and some modern new ones (e.g., Finnish) have been very successful. The contemporary important writing not of alphabetic type is that in Chinese characters, in which thousands of symbols are used, each representing a word or concept, and Japanese, where each character represents a syllable. The Chinese system is distant enough from the spoken language that the same characters are used in writing mutually unintelligible dialects, e.g., Cantonese and Mandarin. In some languages, as in English and French, the modern freezing of spelling has removed the writing more and more from pronunciation and has resulted in the need to teach spelling and the growth of fallacies like the "silent" letter (a letter is really either the symbol of a sound or it is unnecessary). Writing was developed independently in Egypt (see hieroglyphichieroglyphic
[Gr.,=priestly carving], type of writing used in ancient Egypt. Similar pictographic styles of Crete, Asia Minor, and Central America and Mexico are also called hieroglyphics (see Minoan civilization; Anatolian languages; Maya; Aztec).
..... Click the link for more information. ), Mesopotamia (see cuneiformcuneiform
[Lat.,=wedge-shaped], system of writing developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley, probably by the Sumerians (see Sumer).
..... Click the link for more information. ), China, and among the ZapotecZapotec
, indigenous people of Mexico, primarily in S Oaxaca and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Little is known of the origin of the Zapotec. Unlike most native peoples of Middle America, they had no traditions or legends of migration, but believed themselves to have been born
..... Click the link for more information. , OlmecOlmec
, term denoting the culture of ancient Mexican natives inhabiting the tropical coastal plain of the contemporary states of Veracruz and Tabasco, between 1300 and 400 B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. , and MayaMaya
, indigenous people of S Mexico and Central America, occupying an area comprising the Yucatán peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, parts of El Salvador, and extreme western Honduras.
..... Click the link for more information. in Central America. There are some areas where the question as to whether writing was adopted or independently developed is in doubt, as at Easter Island. Ancient writing, at first pictographic in nature, is best known from stone and clay inscriptionsinscription,
writing on durable material. The art is called epigraphy. Modern inscriptions are made for permanent, monumental record, as on gravestones, cornerstones, and building fronts; they are often decorative and imitative of ancient (usually Roman) methods.
..... Click the link for more information. , but the use of perishable materials, mainly palm leaf, papyrus, and paper, began in ancient times. See accentaccent,
in speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems in linguistics. There are three basic accentual methods: stress, tone, and length. In English each word has at least one primary stressed syllable, as in weath`er;
..... Click the link for more information. ; calligraphycalligraphy
[Gr.,=beautiful writing], skilled penmanship practiced as a fine art. See also inscription; paleography. European Calligraphy

In Europe two sorts of handwriting came into being very early.
..... Click the link for more information. ; punctuationpunctuation
[Lat.,=point], the use of special signs in writing to clarify how words are used; the term also refers to the signs themselves. In every language, besides the sounds of the words that are strung together there are other features, such as tone, accent, and pauses,
..... Click the link for more information. ; paleographypaleography
[Gr.,=early writing], term generally meaning all study and interpretation of old ways of recording language. In a narrower sense, it excludes epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) and includes only the writing that is done on such materials as wax, papyrus,
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See J. H. Ober, Writing: Man's Greatest Invention (1964); O. Ogg, The 26 Letters (rev. ed. 1971); J. A. Fishman, Advances in the Creation and Revision of Writing Systems (1977); A. Gaur A History of Writing (1984); G. Sampson Writing Systems (1985); R. Harris, The Origin of Writing (1986).

writing

the encoding of the spoken word by inscribing symbols on a surface, usually paper, but also in other materials such as clay Writing, since it allows the storage of information on an altogether new scale, is a social innovation whose significance in social and economic development is profound. At first the preserve of an exclusive class, the ultimate spread of writing, and subsequently printing and other forms of mass communications dependent upon this, is a major source of both the modernization and democratization of societies. See also LITERACY.

Writing

a system of signs for recording speech making possible the use of graphic elements to transmit speech information

Figure 1. Sample of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing

over a distance and give the information some degree of permanence. Originally, other means were used for transmitting information, including pictographic writing, notched counting sticks,

Figure 2. Sample of a Sumerian cuneiform text

various systems of notches, wampum, and the quipu. Writing proper usually develops in early class society, when economic life becomes more complex. A writing system is a constant inventory of signs, each sign representing an entire word, a sequence of sounds, or a separate speech sound. Writing types are classified according to the way symbols represent speech elements and not according to the form of the symbols (representational drawings or conventional geometric signs, for example). The four principal types of writing are ideographic, word-syllabic, syllabic, and alphabetic. These types usually do not exist in pure form in specific writing systems.

Figure 3. Seals with inscriptions from Mohenjo-Daro

In ideographic writing, each sign (representational device) can stand for any word in any grammatical form within a range of notional associations, either conventional or evoked directly by the image constituting the given sign. For example, a sign depicting a leg can signify any grammatical form of “to walk,” “to stand,” “to bring,” and so on. An arbitrary graphic symbol may be used instead of a picture. The feasibility of transmitting information in a purely ideographic system is extremely limited, and this type of writing has existed only in the transition from pictography to word-syllabic writing. It was used either in economic records where the very content of the text limits the number of possible concepts (Sumer, beginning of the third millennium B.C.), or in ritual texts as a memory aid. It is unclear whether the Easter Island writing system and the Chukchi system invented by Tenevil in the 20th century were ideographic or word-syllabic.

Figure 4. Clay tablet with inscription in Minoan syllabic writing

Word-syllabic writing proved to be much more viable. It too is based on the polysemantic ideogram, but signs are added to ensure that a particular ideogram is always associated with a given word. The added signs may represent purely phonetic elements of some or all of the word (especially grammatical elements) or may function as determinatives that define more precisely the range of notions a given word encompasses. In ancient Egyptian, for example, a drawing of a beetle (hpr) with the syllabic signs h-, p-, r- (vowels unknown) and the abstract-concept determinative indicated “existence” (hpr). In Sumerian, drawings of a leg and a stone signified “one who came” (gína,) because the drawing of a stone was read na; the drawings of a leg and a pile of grain (?) (ba) meant “standing” (gúba). The signs for “tower (?)” and “lattice(?)” with the determinative for “deity” (the drawing of a star) were read as “the god Enlil” (the name of a god), but with the determinative “land” (a drawing of a plot of land cut by canals) they were read as “Niburu” (the name of the city where this god was worshiped).

An ideographic sign that has become associated with a specific word is called a logogram. Logograms are also used for signs expressing sequences of sounds, as in a rebus. In the words cited above, for example, na and ba were not used to mean “stone” and “pile (?)” but signified the sequences of sounds [n] + [a] and [b] + [a]. The sequences are not necessarily syllables: in Egyptian, vowels are not represented, and in Akkadian, the syllable may be broken up into parts. Word-syllabic writing could be used for texts of any content because the system ensured a sufficiently adequate record of speech and a reliable reproduction of the text when read. Because there was not necessarily any direct connection between the original ideograms and the phonetic aspect of speech, the same signs could be used as logographic elements for different dialects in China and for different languages in the ancient Middle East.

In the most ancient forms of word-syllabic writing, the signs long retained their pictorial and hieroglyphic appearance in monumental inscriptions. At the same time, there was a cursive form used, for example, on papyruses and pottery shards in Egypt, clay tiles in Southwest Asia, and bamboo sticks in the Far East. Word-syllabic writing systems arose usually independently of one another wherever states first took shape; a few instances of similarity in signs are explained by common typology or chance. The best known word-syllabic writing systems are Egyptian (from the late fourth millennium B.C.; Figure 1), Sumerian (from the early third millennium B.C.; Figure 2) and the types of cuneiform writing that developed from it, Elamite hieroglyphics (third millennium B.C.), Proto-Indic (third millennium B.C.; Figure 3), Minoan (from the early second millennium B.C.; Figure 4), Chinese (from the second millennium B.C.; Figure 5), and Maya in Central America (first millennium A.D.; other Central-American writing systems were apparently ideographic and pictographic). Not all ancient writing systems of this type have been deciphered; the writing systems of Egypt, Mesopotamia (cuneiform), and China are the most thoroughly studied. Akkadian cuneiform is basically a syllabic writing system, but any Sumerian word sign or group of signs could be inserted into a text to denote an Akkadian word (a heterogram), especially to save space.

The only ancient word-syllabic system still in use is Chinese. Its survival is explained by the amorphous nature of the Chinese word that all but eliminates the need to represent grammatical markers and also by the convenience of the writing system for communication between speakers of phonetically divergent dialects. Chinese characters originated as pictures, which under-went

Figure 5. Sample of text written in Chinese characters

cursive simplification, assuming their final appearance when paper was introduced in the second century; there are various forms of cursive writing. The characters are usually compounds that result from the addition of a determinative and a phonetic, which indicates exact or approximate pronunciation.

Chinese writing spread to Korea, Japan, and other countries but did not prove suitable because of the different grammatical structure of the local languages. Consequently, local phonetic writing systems, such as the kana syllabary in Japan and the letter-syllabic ligature kunmun script in Korea, soon came to be used alongside Chinese characters. In Japanese, word stems are usually indicated by characters functioning as heterograms, and inflected parts of the word are represented by syllabic signs. In Korean, the characters were retained only in borrowings from Chinese and for homonyms.

Word-syllabic writing has the advantage of using logograms that are international in nature, and it needs fewer signs to represent the same section of text in comparison with phonetic writing. For these reasons auxiliary writing subsystems make use of logograms, such as numerals and the symbols used in algebraic and chemical formulas. Disadvantages of word-syllabic writing include the multiplicity of signs (from several hundred to many thousands) and the difficulty in learning to read caused by the system’s unwieldiness.

Figure 6. Brahmi writing

Writing systems in which each sign represents not a word but only a sequence of sounds are called syllabic. Sequences may be exclusively of the type C (consonant) + V (vowel or zero), or they may also be of the type V + C and even C + V + C, with C+ C+ V and C+V + C + V less often encountered. There may also be signs for individual vowels. Syllabic systems often result from the simplification of word-syllabic systems; the Cyprian writing system, for example, developed from the Minoan mainly by dispensing with logograms. Syllabic systems may also develop secondarily when vowels are added to a consonantal alphabetic system; in this way, Ethiopic writing developed from ancient Semitic writing and, in all likelihood, the Indian Brahmi (Figure 6) and Kharoshthi writing systems developed from Aramaic. Syllabic systems may be devised specially to complement word-syllabic systems in languages rich in grammatical forms, such as Japanese or Korean.

Syllabic systems are most widely used in India and Southeast Asia. Brahmi, apparently the most ancient Indian syllabic writing system, is of uncertain origin and may have been derived from Aramaic. More important is the Kharoshthi system, which dates from the third century B.C. and was evidently derived from the Aramaic alphabet; according to the principles developed in Brahmi, distinguishing signs were created from identical consonants with different vowels. The Brahmi and Kharoshthi systems permit the phonetic makeup of a text to be represented very precisely, in a way similar to phonetic transcription. These systems, like most of the later varieties of writing that spread from northern India to southern and Southeast Asia, are based on a subsystem of basic signs. Some signs represent vowels, but most represent consonants followed by the vowel [-a]. If a vowel other than [-a] follows the consonant, the basic sign modifies its shape accordingly. If the consonant is followed by another consonant or more than one consonant, a single ligature is formed from the signs representing these consonants + [a]. There is a supplementary mark to indicate the absence of a vowel at the end of a word. Since the signs were not fixed in typographic form, dozens of outwardly dissimilar varieties of cursive that were based primarily on the same principles developed in southern and Southeast Asia, many receiving typographic form only in the 19th and 20th centuries. The most important writing system of this group is Devanagari (Figure 7), which is used for Sanskrit, Hindi, and other languages.

Figure 7. Devanagari writing

Syllabic writing has the advantage of using a fewer number of signs than the ideographic system, between 100 and 300. A disadvantage is that it is a somewhat unwieldy system that causes difficulty in the choice of a correct reading, especially in the absence of word boundaries. Missionaries have recently created syllabic writing systems to aid in their religious work among peoples in various countries who do not have written languages. All these syllabic systems, however, have been superseded by alphabetic ones.

In alphabetic writing systems a separate sign (letter) generally represents one sound. This sound can be a phoneme, an allophone, or any phoneme within some group of acoustically similar sounds. Sometimes two, three, or four letters may be combined to indicate a single phoneme, as with the German sch for [ŝ] or tsch for [č]. Alphabetic and syllabic writing systems are often inaccurately grouped together as phonetic writing systems.

Figure 8. Theory of the origin of the Phoenician alphabet from Byblos syllabic writing

The historical ancestor of all alphabetic writing was the ancient Semitic (Phoenician) phonetic consonantal writing system. This was a syllabic writing system with signs only of the type C + V, the V corresponding to any vowel or no vowel at all. The origin of the ancient Semitic protoalphabet in the second half of the second millennium B.C. has not yet been established. It is most probable that it originated from the Phoenician (proto-Byblos) syllabic writing system using some 100 signs in which vowel qualities were still distinguished in signs of the type C + V (Figure 8). The classical Phoenician alphabet had 22 signs, fewer than the number of consonant phonemes. The three ancient Semitic protoalphabetic systems we know of—Phoenician linear, Ugaritic cuneiform (which had a common letter order), and South Arabic linear—were based on a common syllabic or word-syllabic prototype. The possibility of not distinguishing vowels was determined by the nature of the Semitic languages, in which the meaning of the root is associated with consonants, and vowels express grammatical elements and elements used in word-formation. The new system made it possible to record speech phonetically with a minimum number of easily and quickly remembered signs (letters). A text without vowels and usually without word divisions was difficult to understand, however, except when the content was known to some extent beforehand. This type of writing was more suitable as a cryptographic writing system for merchants and navigators than as a universal means of transcribing speech, and therefore word-syllabic writing systems competed with it quite successfully for more than a thousand years. A cuneiform (Ugaritic) variant of the protoalphabet became extinct as early as the second millennium B.C. A variant of the linear alphabet existed in south Arabia until the seventh century A.D. and in Africa gave rise to the present Ethiopic alphabet with secondary vocalism according to the Indian principle.

The Phoenician linear protoalphabet proper was adopted in its original form in Asia Minor, giving rise to alphabets of Asia Minor that died out early in the Common Era. In Greece and Italy its adoption led to the development of the Western alphabets as described below. The protoalphabet spread throughout the Middle East in a cursive form developed for Aramaic, an ancient Semitic language related to Phoenician, thus giving rise to the Eastern alphabets (Figure 9 and 10).

Eastern alphabets. The alphabet that, together with the Aramaic language used in the bureaucracy, spread throughout the Persian Empire of the Achaemenids between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C. led to the creation of numerous local variants from Asia Minor to India. The most important were Syriac Aramaic writing and Square Hebrew, which was originally used for religious books. A special variety of Aramaic cursive with supplementary superlinear and sublinear diacritics provided the basis for Arabic writing. Relatively early in the history of Phoenician writing and the systems derived from it, the systems began indicating the diphthongs [au] and [ai] and the long vowels [ō], [ū], [ē], [ī], [ā]. These sounds were represented—at first inconsistently, but later regularly—by the letters for the consonants [w], [j], [’], and [h]. These consonants are known as matres lectionis (literally, “mothers of reading”). All letters (including w, j,’, and h), when they were not matres lectionis, came to designate consonants followed by short vowels or zero. Short vowels per se are not usually indicated separately in alphabets of Semitic origin, the matres lectionis being used rarely and inconsistently. Only in the Middle Ages, mainly in liturgical books, did all vowels come to be indicated by diacritics above or below letters. In Hebrew writing, vowels were indicated by points and groups of points, in Syriac by points, groups of points, and small Greek letters, and in Arabic and derived scripts by small Arabic matres lectionis. However, vowel points did not come into everyday use in Syriac, Square Hebrew, or Arabic writing.

In the unstable states that emerged in the East after the Macedonian conquest (fourth century B.C.), it became customary in commercial correspondence to write only familiar bureaucratic formulas and certain other words and expressions in Aramaic; the remainder of the text, and sometimes word inflections as well, was written in the local language with Aramaic letters. A secondary system of Aramaic pseudologograms (heterograms) was thereby created; the text as a whole, including the heterograms, was read in the local language. Thus, the Aramaic alphabet in its early bureaucratic form was adapted to Old Persian, which earlier had its own syllabic cuneiform writing, evidently not later than the fourth century B.C. Different cursive varieties were later used for other Iranian languages, including Parthian, Middle Persian, Sogdian, and Khwarazmian.

In the Middle Ages, literacy was concentrated among the clergy, and, consequently, the spread of each alphabet was associated with a specific religion. Square Hebrew spread together with Judaism and is now officially used in Israel for the Hebrew language. Arabic writing spread with Islam and was used for the languages of all Muslim peoples regardless of origin; it is today used for Arabic, Persian, Pashto (Afghan), Urdu, and other languages. Different types of Aramaic cursive, including Nestorian and Jacobite writing, also spread with various Christian sects and Manichaeism. A writing system with Aramaic heterograms spread mainly with Zoroastrianism. Avestan writing, an improved alphabet with vowel letters (a concept apparently taken from Greek), was based on this system and used for the sacred books of Zoroastrianism. The Uighur and Turkic runic writing systems were the most important systems created for the Turks of Central Asia; both were based on Sogdian and Nestorian writing. Uighur writing was later adapted for the Mongolian and Manchu languages, with vocalization partly of the Tibeto-Indic type and vertical writing in the Chinese fashion. The spread of Christianity necessitated the creation of writing systems for the local languages of Transcaucasia. Special alphabets were created in approximately A.D. 400 for the complex phonological systems of these languages; the Armenian, Georgian, and Albanian (Agvani) alphabets used Aramaic characters and Greek orthographic and philological principles.

Western alphabets. All Western alphabets derive from the

Figure 9. Development of Eastern and Western alphabets from Phoenician writing

Greek writing system, which apparently arose in the eighth century B.C., some texts date to the late eighth and seventh centuries. Letters in archaic Greek writing are shaped almost exactly as in Phoenician; only later were the supplementary letters φ, ξ, ξ, ψ, and ω introduced. The writing systems of archaic Asia Minor and Greece originally lacked letters for short vowels. Writing was originally from right to left, as in the Semitic languages, later from right to left and left to right in alternating lines (boustrophedon), and finally from left to right. The names of the Greek and ancient Semitic letters are very similar, and the order of the letters in the alphabets coincides.

A Greek text without vowels is almost unintelligible. To represent vowels, therefore, Greek writing made use of matres lectionis and Phoenician letters that were superfluous in Greek because they stood for non-Greek sounds. Thus, in addition to α, ε ι, and υ, the letters η and o came into use, deriving from the Phoenician ’, h, y, w, h, and ‘. An analogous process took place in the alphabets of Asia Minor, which became extinct at an early date. The written representation of all vowels and not only consonants was a major cultural achievement.

Two varieties of Greek writing subsequently emerged, East Greek and West Greek, differing in the shape and use of several letters. The Classical Greek alphabet, and later the Byzantine, developed from East Greek in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. East Greek later gave rise to Coptic (Egyptian Christian), Gothic, and Cyrillic, the alphabet of several Slavic languages. West Greek formed the basis for the Italic alphabets, including Etruscan (seventh century B.C.), from which the Germanic runes

Figure 10. Genealogical diagram of writing system development. Broken lines indicate probable paths of development or influence.

were derived (third century A.D.). It was from Etruscan, apparently, that Latin writing developed in the sixth century B.C. In the time of the Roman Empire the Latin alphabet acquired an international significance that was preserved as the Catholic Church spread and Western European feudalism developed (Figure 11).

Figure 11. Development of the Latin script

The Latin writing system is used for the national languages of Western European peoples, including the French, Germans, and Poles. Since the phonetic inventory of the various modern Western European languages differs greatly from the phonetic inventory of Latin, national orthographies make widespread use of two- and three-letter combinations to represent one sound (English th or German sch, for example), thus highly complicating the writing systems. The strength of literary tradition has kept some Western European writing systems from undergoing significant reforms for many centuries. In these systems, which include the English and French, a gap has been created between writing and the living and evolving language of the people. Traditional orthography has become the basis of a writing system that no longer adequately represents the modern spoken language, with some letter combinations becoming kinds of secondary pseudologograms.

Figure 12. Diacritics and ligatures used in Latin-based writing systems

In both Greek and Latin manuscript writing, varieties of script evolved over the centuries, including capital script, uncial, half uncial, Caroline minuscule, Gothic, and the humanistic script of the Renaissance. With the introduction of printing, two basic varieties of Latin writing developed: modern roman and antiqua typefaces, based on the humanistic script of the Renaissance in imitation of Roman monumental inscriptions; and Gothic script (black-letter) and Fraktur, or schwabacher, typefaces, which were preserved in Germany until the mid-20th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, a number of Latin-based writing systems developed in all parts of the world as new bour-

Figure 13. Origin of the Slavic and Russian alphabets

Figure 14. Diacritics and supplementary letters used in Russian-based writing systems

geois nations emerged. Sounds for which the Latin alphabet had no symbols are often indicated by diacritics in such systems, for example, in Czech, Turkish, and African languages (Figure 12).

Slavic writing. A Slavic writing system (Cyrillic) was developed by adding to the 24 letters of Byzantine Greek another 19 letters for specifically Slavic phonemes; the letters π and in were taken from Square Hebrew, and the rest were specially devised. Cyrillic was used by the Orthodox Slavs and, until the 19th century, by the Rumanians. It was introduced into Rus’ in the 10th and 11th centuries at the time of Christianization. It is possible, however, that the Slavs had a writing system even before this. The question of the origin of Glagolitic, another Slavic writing system, and its relationship with Cyrillic has not yet been resolved. Although the alphabets agree almost completely in the inventory, order, and significance of letters, they differ sharply in the form the letters take. Cyrillic had simple and legible letters similar to ninth-century Greek uncials, but Glagolitic had intricate and very distinctive letters (Figure 13). Glagolitic was used primarily by Catholic Southwestern Slavs with a Slavic liturgy and became extinct in the late Middle Ages.

The appearance of Cyrillic letters underwent changes between the tenth and 18th centuries, for example, in late uncial writing (ustav,) simplified late uncial writing (poluustav,) and ornamental ligatured script. The Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian writing systems are based on Cyrillic; added letters include љ њ, ħ, Б, and џ. The Russian alphabet, consisting of 33 letters, is called the Civil typeface to distinguish it from the Church Slavonic typeface (Cyrillic proper), which was preserved for religious literature under a reform of Peter I the Great. The Civil typeface is a simplified Cyrillic in which the forms of the letters are modeled on the antiqua typeface. It went through a number of alphabet and orthographic reforms (1708–10, 1735, 1758,1918) that eliminated all letters not needed to represent the phonemes of modern Russian. Two new letters have been introduced: ft and (optionally) ë.

In the USSR new alphabets have been created for peoples who previously had no writing system or whose writing system was based on a writing system ill suited for their language, for example, the Arabic script. Originally these new alphabets were based on the Latin alphabet, but from the 1930’s they have been based on the Russian alphabet, to which a number of supplementary letters and letters with diacritics have been added (Figure 14).

Writing is studied in grammatology, epigraphy, and paleography.

REFERENCES

Vasil’ev, V. P. Analiz kitaiskikh ieroglifov, parts 1–2, [2nd ed.]. St. Petersburg, 1884–98.

Entsiklopediia slavianskoi filologii. Edited by Academician V. Jagić, fasc. 3: Grafika u slavian. St. Petersburg, 1911.
Iazyki i pis’mennost’ narodov Severa, part 3. Moscow-Leningrad, 1934.
Dobiash-Rozhdestvenskaia, O. A. Istoriia pis’ma ν srednie veka, 2nd ed. Moscow-Leningrad, 1936.
Opisanie vystavki “Pis’mennost ‘drevnego mira i rannego srednevekov’ia”: Putevoditel’. Moscow-Leningrad, 1936. (Academy of Sciences of the USSR: Institute for Books, Documents, and Letters.)
D’iakonov, I. M. “K vozniknoveniiu pis’ma ν Dvurech’e.” In Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh: Trudy Otdela Vostoka, vol. 3. Leningrad, 1940.
Iushmanov, N. V. Kliuch k latinskim pis’mennostiam zemnogo shara. Moscow-Leningrad, 1941.
Champollion, J.-F. O egipetskom ieroglificheskom alfavite. [Moscow] 1950. (Translated from French.)
Friedrich, J. Deshifrovka zabytykh pis’mennostei i iazykov. Moscow, 1961. (Translated from German.)
Diringer, D. Alfavit. Moscow, 1963. (Translated from English.)
Vaiman, A. A. “K rasshifrovke protoshumerskoi pis’mennosti.” In Peredneaziatskii sbornik, vol. 2. Moscow, 1966.
Perikhanian, A. G. “K voprosu o proiskhozhdenii armianskoi pis’mennosti.” In Peredneaziatskii sbornik, vol. 2. Moscow, 1966.
Ojha Gaurishankar Hirachand. The Palaeography of India, 2nd ed. Ajmer, 1918.
Meissner, B. Die Keilschrift. 2nd ed. Berlin-Leipzig, 1922.
Erman, A. Die Hieroglyphen, 2nd reprinting. Berlin-Leipzig, 1923.
Karlgren, B. Grammata serica: Script and Phonetics in Chinese and Sino-Japanese. Stockholm, 1940.
Dunand, M. Byblia grammata: Documents et recherches sur le développement de l’écriture en Phénicie. Beirut, 1945.
Février, J. G. Histoire de l’écriture, 2nd ed. Paris, 1959.
Chadwick, J. The Decipherment of Linear B. Cambridge, 1959.
Laroche, E. Les Hiéroglyphes hittites. Paris, 1960.
Gelb, I. J. A Study of Writing, revised edition. Chicago, 1963.
Friedrich, J. Geschichte der Schrift. Heidelberg, 1966.
Jensen, H. Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, 3rd ed. Berlin, 1969.

I. M. D’IAKONOV

What does it mean when you dream about writing?

To be writing or to observe another person writing in a dream may indicate that the dreamer is trying to communicate with someone. It could also indicate that the dreamer himself is trying to communicate with his own conscious self. The term worm is used metaphorically in some common English expressions to represent weakness and sneakiness, as in “he wormed his way into the group” or “what a worm he turned out to be.” The worm also symbolizes bait and rich, fertile soil.

writing

1. a group of letters or symbols written or marked on a surface as a means of communicating ideas by making each symbol stand for an idea, concept, or thing (see ideogram), by using each symbol to represent a set of sounds grouped into syllables (syllabic writing), or by regarding each symbol as corresponding roughly or exactly to each of the sounds in the language (alphabetic writing) 2. anything expressed in letters, esp a literary composition 3. the work of a writer 4. literary style, art, or practice

Writing

(dreams)Writing is a means of communication. In dreams it may be a symbol of communicating with others, but it mostly represents communication with oneself. If you are writing in a dream or reading someone else’s writing, it may be an unconscious effort to become aware of forces or issues in life. Writing is a secondary form of communication. Speaking is more direct and less cumbersome for most. Thus, the written message in your dream may be disguised or may be less genuine than other forms of receiving information from the unconscious. You may be trying to figure something out and this may be the first step in that process.

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What does it mean when you dream about writing?

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noun script

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noun documents

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phrase writing on the wall

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noun the act of creating written works

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noun the work of a writer

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noun (usually plural) the collected work of an author

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noun letters or symbols that are written or imprinted on a surface to represent the sounds or words of a language

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noun the activity of putting something in written form

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