Definitions

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

  • noun A copyist; a scribe.
  • noun An expert in penmanship.
  • noun An author; a writer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A person considered with reference to his skill in the use of the pen; absolutely, one who writes a good hand; a calligrapher; also, one who professes or teaches the art of penmanship.
  • noun An author; a writer.

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

  • noun One who uses the pen; a writer; esp., one skilled in the use of the pen; a calligrapher; a writing master.
  • noun An author; a composer.

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

  • noun A scribe, or person who copies texts
  • noun A journalist or other author

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

  • noun informal terms for journalists

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The expression, and style, and love, intimate that the penman was the same with that of the foregoing epistle; he is now the elder, emphatically and eminently so; possibly the oldest apostle now living, the chief elder in the church of God.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721

  • This part of the story is related very particularly, perhaps because the penman was an eye-witness of the prudent and successful management of this affair, and remembered it with a great deal of pleasure.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721

  • We are told no more in the title of this book (which we have, v. 1) than that the penman was a prophet, a man divinely inspired and commissioned, which is enough (if that be so, we need not ask concerning his tribe or family, or the place of his birth), and that the book itself is the burden which he saw; he was as sure of the truth of it as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes already accomplished.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • Worse yet, you're a plastic-penman who tries hard, but doesn't really fully understand the subject he is writing about.

    Robin van Persie fails to give Arsenal the power to pierce City armour | Richard Williams 2011

  • Bonus: Go down to Fantagraphics between noon and 1pm and meet iconic penman Jim Woodring.

    A Landmark House Party « PubliCola 2010

  • He was a prolific penman, a gifted and self-taught writer whose passionate works gave a romantic sheen to the elemental struggle for survival, and his lonely, self-divided existence was governed by the belief that "fear of death makes for life".

    Essays 2007

  • “I am learned in the law,” I replied, “and a doctor of doctrine; an adept in art and science, a mathematician and a notable penman.”

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Ofelli themselves; whether the rapid pace at which the fancy moveth in such exercitations, where the wish of the penman is to him like Prince

    Count Robert of Paris 2008

  • In a word, he was transformed from the penman into the captain and man-at-arms.

    Voltaire 2007

  • Suppose yourself, brother penman, decorated with this ribbon, and looking in the glass, would you not laugh?

    Roundabout Papers 2006

Comments

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  • included in a manuscript to illustrate a point being made in the text. As used copiously in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.

    January 9, 2007