manuscript

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A book, document, or other composition written by hand.
2. n. A typewritten or handwritten version of a book, an article, a document, or other work, especially the author's own copy, prepared and submitted for publication in print.
3. n. Handwriting.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Written with the hand; in handwriting (not printed).
2. Consisting of writings or written books.
3. n. A book, paper, or instrument written by hand with ink or other pigment, or with a pencil or the like; a writing of any kind, as distinguished from anything that is printed. Especially
4. n. Such a book, paper, or instrument so written before the introduction and general adoption of printing in the fifteenth century, or in a style in vogue before the invention of printing. The oldest surviving manuscripts are Egyptian, of which some are at least 3,500 years old. Ancient manuscripts are written on papyrus, parchment, or vellum, and are usually in the form of a long band which was rolled for convenience about a rod. Greek manuscripts are in uncial, cursive, or minuscule characters. The uncials are the oldest form, and resemble modern capitals. The cursive characters are derived from the uncials, though they came to differ much from these in shape, and are used in manuscripts from the second century before Christ. The minuscule writing is that practised with few or no exceptions since the ninth, century; the forms of the earliest printed Greek closely resemble it. Latin manuscripts are in capital, uncial, cursive, or minuscule characters. The capitals are the earliest form, but their use was not entirely discontinued until the Carolingian epoch. The uncials, of which the letters are characterized by their rounded shape, were developed very early, attained their highest perfection in the fourth century, and continued in use until the ninth century. The cursive writing was developed from the uncial; it appears in the graffiti found scratched on the walls of Pompeii, Rome, etc., and is the parent of many old systems of writing, as the Lombard and Merovingian. The minuscule style was developed in the eighth century, in the monastery of St. Martin at Tours, and reached its perfection in the twelfth century. In this style are written the splendid manuscripts of the middle ages, produced for the most part in monasteries, and enriched with superbly illuminated initial letters and elaborately painted miniatures. Upon the introduction of printing, the minuscule writing supplied models to the earliest type-makers. Palimpsest manuscripts are manuscripts written in antiquity or in the early middle ages upon papyrus or vellum from which earlier writing had been erased. Modern science has been successful in deciphering the imperfectly effaced characters of many such manuscripts, and has recovered in this way some of our most valuable remnants of classic literature. The three most important Biblical manuscripts extant are the Alexandrian Codex, the Vatican Codex, and the Sinaitic Codex. (See codex.) These are of course all uncials. See capital, cursive, majuscule, minuscule, uncial. Often abbreviated MS., plural MSS.
5. To write by hand.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Which is handwritten, or by extension typewritten, as opposed to mechanical reproduction.
2. n. A book, composition or any other document, (type)written by hand, not mechanically reproduced.
3. n. A single, original copy of a book, article, composition etc, written by hand or even printed, submitted as original for (copy-editing and) reproductive publication.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Written with or by the hand; not printed.
2. n. An original literary or musical composition written by the author, formerly with the hand, now usually by typewriter or word processor. It is contrasted with a printed copy.
3. n. Writing, as opposed to print.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. handwritten book or document
2. n. the form of literary work submitted for publication