different between longhand vs cacography

English

Etymology

long +? hand, by analogy with shorthand.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l???hænd/

Noun

longhand (countable and uncountable, plural longhands)

1. The written characters used in the common method of writing; opposed to shorthand, or typing or printing; handwriting.

   Synonym: handwriting

   Antonym: shorthand

Adverb

longhand (not comparable)

1. Written by hand in normal characters, as opposed to shorthand.

   Antonym: shorthand

   Coordinate term: engross

2. Written by hand (with pen or pencil), rather than printed out; handwritten.

   Synonym: handwritten

   Antonyms: print, print out

Further reading

• longhand on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• kakography

Etymology

From caco- +? -graphy, perhaps after Middle French cacographie.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ka?k????fi/
• Rhymes: -????fi

Noun

cacography (countable and uncountable, plural cacographies)

1. Bad spelling or punctuation, especially unintuitive spellings considered as a feature of a whole language or dialect. [from 16th c.]
   • 1846, Gabriel Surenne, A Practical Grammar of French Rhetoric, IV.4.1:

     A phrase exhibits proofs of cacography, when the accents are misplaced, forgotten, or used erroneously.

   • 1999, Jack Schofield, The Guardian, 25 Feb 1999:

     In 1997, two American entrepreneurs, Robert Hoffer and Timothy Kay, formed a company called Typo.net to try to profit from Web surfers' cacography.
2. Poor or illegible handwriting. [from 17th c.]
   • 1904, John Rexford, What Handwriting Indicates, pp. 90-91:

     Many illegible letters is the sign of disorder, and the illegibility of Greeley's cacography has furnished numberless anecdotes.

   • 2002, Mil Millington, The Guardian, 29 Jun 2002:

     Germans write a "1" so it's easy to confuse it with a "7": mathematics and cacography can leave Margret and I not speaking to each other for a week.

Antonyms

• (poor spelling system): orthography
• (poor handwriting): calligraphy

Derived terms

• cacographer
• cacographic
• cacographical

Translations

See also

• illegible
• indecipherable
• indistinct
• obscure
• scrawled
• unclear
• undecipherable
• unreadable