Calligrapher

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kəˈlɪɡɹəfɚ/

Definitions

1. An individual skilled in the art of decorative handwriting or lettering creates visually appealing text through tailored strokes and designs
2. A person specializing in artistic writing techniques employs precise movements and styles to produce elaborate and elegant scripts
3. Someone who practices the craft of beautiful writing combines aesthetics and technique to render text in a visually striking manner

Etymology: "Calligrapher" is built from "calligraphy" plus the agent suffix "-er," so the real story lies in the older word it rests on. "Calligraphy" comes from Greek "kalligraphia," from "kallos," meaning beauty, and "graphein," meaning to write, so the literal sense is beautiful writing. The Greek compound was later borrowed into English as a word for elegant handwriting. The suffix has a longer ancestry than the base. It descends from Latin "-arius," which English inherited partly through Old French "-ier" and partly through Old English "-ere," a native pathway that shows how the same ending entered the language by two routes. Words such as "writer" and "baker" carry the same ending, so "calligrapher" simply names a person who practises the art, with no separate Greek noun behind it.

Synonyms: scribe, letterer, penman, artist, typographer