Estrangelo

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A flowing, cursive form of the Syriac alphabet that was widely used for writing Aramaic texts in the early centuries of the Christian era
2. The joined-up, slanted script of the Syriac writing system, employed especially for manuscripts and religious documents in the Middle East
3. A handwriting style associated with the Syriac alphabet, distinguished by its connected letters and used in ancient and medieval Christian writing

Etymology: Estrangelo is the rounded, angular Syriac script that Syriac writers used from roughly the early centuries of the Common Era, and its name is a Greek word in disguise. It comes from the Ancient Greek "strongúlos", meaning "rounded", which passed into Classical Syriac as "ʾesṭrangēlā" and later into the modern Neo-Aramaic form Turoyo as "esṭrangelo". The Greek adjective also gave English "strangyle" in the sense of a rounded object, so the two words are doublets, siblings that entered the language by different routes. The irony is that the script's name points to roundness while the letters themselves look rather squared off. The name is most likely a reference to the rounded shapes that the script's characters were drawn with, set against the more cursive forms of later Syriac writing, though the source does not spell out this reasoning.