Tironian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to the ancient Roman shorthand system devised by Marcus Tullius Tiro, Cicero's freedman, including its distinctive symbols and abbreviations
2. Describing the shorthand notation invented by Tiro, the secretary of Cicero, and the special signs such as the Tironian et used within it
3. Of or concerning the stenographic script attributed to Tiro in ancient Rome, known for its compact signs and abbreviated forms

Etymology: Tironian notes were the shorthand of antiquity, and the man behind them was a slave-born secretary. Marcus Tullius Tiro, a freedman of the orator Cicero, is credited with developing a system of abbreviations and symbols that let scribes record speech at speed. Many of its signs survived for more than a thousand years in medieval manuscripts, and the most famous, a stylised "7" for the Latin "et" (and), still appears in modern typefaces as the Tironian et. The English word is a learned borrowing from the Latin "Tīrōniānus", the adjective formed from Tiro's name. Its use is therefore confined to scholarly contexts, describing the system itself or the individual signs and abbreviations that belong to it, rather than to anything in everyday speech.