"Graf"

[Evan Morris]

Yes -- I've heard it from every newspaper editor I've worked with.  One
that's always mystified me, also heard from editors, is "take" as a noun
meaning a certain amount of text, as in "Give me three takes on that by
tomorrow."  It supposedly means "one page" of double-spaced typewritten
text, but that always struck me as very vague.  In today's world of
computerized word counts, it may have fallen into disuse.

Evan Morris



Fred Shapiro wrote:

> The term "graf," I guess, is journalistese for "paragraph."  I don't see
> it in the OED or Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate.  Is this a fairly
> common word that has eluded the dictionaries?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu
> http://quotationdictionary.com
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--

Evan Morris
words1 at word-detective.com
www.word-detective.com