Paleographer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An expert in the historical study of writing styles and the analysis of ancient texts contributes to our understanding of past cultures
2. A professional who deciphers early manuscripts and evaluates historical writing systems to shed light on their significance
3. A specialist engaged in the analysis and interpretation of ancient scripts and writing styles plays a key role in historical scholarship

Etymology: "Paleographer" is built from two Greek elements: "palaios," meaning "old" or "ancient," and "graphein," meaning "to write." The second part also gives English words like "graphic" and "geography," and "-grapher" marks a person who practises the art or study named by the first part. "Paleo-" is the combining form of "palaios," which English uses in words like "paleontology." The word is a modern formation from these Greek parts, so the "ancient" in it refers to old writing rather than to Greek antiquity itself. It describes someone who reads and dates old scripts, working out how letterforms changed over centuries so that handwritten documents can be placed in time and understood. A paleographer might decipher a medieval charter's abbreviations or identify the hand of a particular scribe.

Synonyms: scriptologist, manuscript expert, paleologist