Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having the successive letters joined together.
  • noun A cursive character or letter.
  • noun A manuscript written in cursive characters.
  • noun Printing A type style that imitates handwriting.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Running; flowing, as writing or manuscript in which the letters are joined one to another, and are formed rapidly without raising the pen, pencil, or stylus; specifically, in paleography, modified from the capital or uncial form, so as to assume a form analogous to that used in modern running hand: as, the cursive style; cursive letters; cursive manuscripts.
  • noun A cursive letter or character: as, a manuscript written in cursives.
  • noun A manuscript written in cursive characters.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Running; flowing.
  • adjective a running handwriting.
  • noun A character used in cursive writing.
  • noun A manuscript, especially of the New Testament, written in small, connected characters or in a running hand; -- opposed to uncial.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having successive letters joined together.
  • noun A cursive character, letter or font.
  • noun A manuscript written in cursive characters.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having successive letter joined together
  • noun rapid handwriting in which letters are set down in full and are cursively connected within words without lifting the writing implement from the paper

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French (écriture) cursive, cursive (handwriting), from Medieval Latin (scrīpta) cursīva, from Latin cursus, past participle of currere, to run; see kers- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin cursivus, from cursum.

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