Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A professional copyist; a scribe.
- noun One who drafts legal instruments such as contracts and wills.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A writer: especially, a public writer; a notary; specifically, one whose occupation is the drawing of contracts or other writings.
- noun One whose business it is to receive money and place it out at interest, and supply those who want to raise money on security; a money-broker; a financial agent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A professional writer; one whose occupation is to draw contracts or prepare writings.
- noun obsolete One whose business is to place money at interest; a broker.
- noun Prov. Eng. A writing master.
- noun See Writer's cramp, under
Writer .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
professional writer ; one whose occupation is to drawcontracts or preparewritings . - noun obsolete One whose business is to place
money atinterest ; abroker . - noun A writing master.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone employed to make written copies of documents and manuscripts
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Yesterday's term was scrivener, which is defined as:
Define That Term #29 2006
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A scrivener is a public copyist, but that noun has fallen into disuse except among notaries public; a scribe, once “a copyist of biblical texts,” is now used jocularly to mean “journalist,” and a scribbler is a put-down of a writer.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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A scrivener is a public copyist, but that noun has fallen into disuse except among notaries public; a scribe, once “a copyist of biblical texts,” is now used jocularly to mean “journalist,” and a scribbler is a put-down of a writer.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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A scrivener is a public copyist, but that noun has fallen into disuse except among notaries public; a scribe, once “a copyist of biblical texts,” is now used jocularly to mean “journalist,” and a scribbler is a put-down of a writer.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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A scrivener is a public copyist, but that noun has fallen into disuse except among notaries public; a scribe, once “a copyist of biblical texts,” is now used jocularly to mean “journalist,” and a scribbler is a put-down of a writer.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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John Milton was the son of a London scrivener, that is, a kind of lawyer.
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He was by business what was then called a scrivener, a term which has received judicial interpretation, and imported a person who arranged loans on mortgage, receiving a commission for so doing.
Obiter Dicta Second Series Augustine Birrell 1891
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A scrivener was a kind of cross between an attorney and a law stationer, whose principal business was the preparation of deeds, “to be well and truly done after my learning, skill, and science,” and with due regard to the interests of more exalted personages.
Life of John Milton Garnett, Richard, 1835-1906 1890
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A scrivener was a kind of cross between an attorney and a law stationer, whose principal business was the preparation of deeds, "to be well and truly done after my learning, skill, and science," and with due regard to the interests of more exalted personages.
Life of John Milton Richard Garnett 1870
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What I saw that morning persuaded me that the scrivener was the victim of innate and incurable disorder.
Bartleby 1856
reesetee commented on the word scrivener
I prefer not.
February 25, 2007
sionnach commented on the word scrivener
Damn! reesetee beat me to it.
April 14, 2008
reesetee commented on the word scrivener
A useful sentence; wouldn't you agree?
April 14, 2008
sionnach commented on the word scrivener
The updated version I found most useful was to fix my boss with a piercing, slightly incredulous, stare and then ask: "Do you really think that would be the best use of my skillset?". Over the years, I estimated about a 90% success rate; though I was careful not to overuse it.
April 15, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word scrivener
Scrivener? I barely know her!
Is that the sentence you're referring to? Otherwise, I'm lost.
April 15, 2008
sionnach commented on the word scrivener
Hint: Half a wine cooler.
April 15, 2008
reesetee commented on the word scrivener
Haha! Good one, c_b!
Actually, we're referring to Bartleby the Scrivener's favorite response to being asked to do work: "I would prefer not to." You can read the story here. :-)
April 15, 2008
madmouth commented on the word scrivener
"...
But in our amours amorists discern
Such fluctuations that their scrivening
Is breathless to attend each quirky turn
..."
-Wallace Stevens, fr. Monocle de Mon Oncle
May 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word scrivener
Bartleby!!
May 24, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word scrivener
When I grow up I want to work in the dead letter office.
May 24, 2010
reesetee commented on the word scrivener
I would prefer not to.
May 24, 2010
660774855 commented on the word scrivener
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_error
June 26, 2010