penmanship = "authorial skill"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Note that Dickens's use in 1844 is a deliberate pun, and that the OED had to
rely on Jeremy Bentham for not one but *two* cites. The second adds nothing
in the way of useful information about usage - a hint that cites of
"penmanship" in this sense are extremely rare.

Peter Lovesey's 1978 example - in a detective novel set in the 1880s - may
not be
a reliable guide to anything.

Surely Bentham wouldn't have used the word in this sense if it sounded as
illiterate
to him as the current example sounds to me.

But that was two hundred years ago, and this is now.

JL

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 1:03 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: penmanship = "authorial skill"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12/10/2009 12:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Another "it had to happen."
>
> Or is it merely re-happening?  What about the OED's
>
> 2. The action, process, or style of composing a document or other
> written work; literary composition, authorship. Now rare.
> 1793 J. BENTHAM Mem. & Corr. in Wks. (1843) X. 292 The penmanship of
> the statutes..has, every now and then, become the subject of a
> dissatisfaction. 1818 J. BENTHAM Church-of-Englandism 329 The men of
> law..by whom a part was taken in the penmanship of this Act. 1844
> DICKENS Let. 27 Jan. (1977) IV. 32, I..have been so much engaged in
> another kind of Penmanship, that I have not answered a letter this
> fortnight. 1978 P. LOVESEY Waxwork 231 A report..would be polished
> into a model of penmanship, rational and cogent.
>
> Of course, everyone is entitled to his distastes.
>
> Joel
>
> >A Barnes & Noble reviewer:
> >
> >2009
> >
> http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Where-Men-Win-Glory/Jon-Krakauer/e/9780385522267/?itm=5&tabname=custreview#TABS&usri=war+year
> >:
> >Without any discredit to Krakauer's penmanship and regardless of the
> >reader's political stance, this book is an obvious political attack and
> >all-out assault on the United States military....
> >JL
> >
> >--
> >"There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> >Platypus"
> >
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>
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