penman
(ˈpɛnmən)
Pl. penmen (ˈpɛnmən).
[f. pen n.2 + man n.]
1. a. A man employed to use the pen for another; one whose business is to write or copy documents, etc.; a clerk, secretary, notary, scrivener. Now rare.
| 1612 Rowlands Four Knaves (Percy Soc.) 109 But Plutoe's pen-man you did late mistake, The Devil's errand, for your maisters sake. 1628 Coke On Litt. 120 Clerk..a pen-man who getteth his living in some court or otherwise by the use of his pen. 1727 A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. xiii. 150 The Banyans..are either Merchants, Bankers, Brokers or Pen-men. 1858 Masson Milton I. 20 Scriveners, as the name implies, were originally penmen of all kinds of writings. 1885 As it was Written in Cassell's Rainbow Ser. Orig. Novels 138 A penman's palsy shakes my wrist. |
b. fig. Applied to the writers of Scripture (penmen of God or penmen of the Holy Ghost) regarded as writing from divine dictation or command. But in later use, with holy, sacred, divine, inspired, etc. = ‘writer’, prob. taken in sense 3.
| 1601 Hakewill Van. of Eye viii. (1615) 45 Moses, the pen-man of God. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 3 The authour being God, not man; the enditer, the holy spirit..; the Pen⁓men such as were sanctified from the wombe, and endewed with a principall portion of Gods spirit. a 1656 Hales Gold. Rem. (1688) 2 St. Paul, one of the first Pen-men of the Holy Ghost. a 1659 Bp. Brownrig Serm. (1674) II. xv. 186 Moses, the first Pen-man that God ever imployed. 1741 Warburton Div. Legat. II. 480 The inspired Pen-men. 1875 Scrivener Lect. Text N. Test. 7 In the case of the classical writings, so with those of the sacred penmen. |
c. Criminals' slang. One who commits forgery.
| 1865 Sessions Papers 11 Apr. 519 For being concerned with, Jemmy the Penman, and others, now in custody, [etc.]. 1887 J. Hawthorne (title) An American penman: from the diary of Inspector Byrnes. 1938 F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad xxix. 297 As soon as they get some cheques or ‘kites’, as they call them, these are rushed off to the ‘penman’ or ‘scribe’, whose task is that of taking out crosses on them, enlarging the figures and preparing suitable letters to the bank asking them to cash the cheques. 1974 H. McLeave Only Gentlemen can Play (1975) ii. 97 You'll need a passport... I've got a penman who can doctor it. |
2. A man skilled in penmanship; a skilful writer; one who writes a good hand; a calligraphist. (With qualifying adj., as good, expert, swift, etc.)
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iv. 416 Smooth Orator, swift Pen-man. 1607 Dekker Westw. Hoe ii. i. Wks. 1873 II. 295 We lacke painfull and expert pen-men amongst vs. 1706 Phillips, Pen-man, a Person skill'd in fair Writing. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic lxxv, Completed lay thy piece, swift penman Paul! |
3. a. A writer or composer of a book or other writing; an author, a writer.
| 1592 Greene Def. Conny Catch. (1859) 6 That palpable asse..that would make any penman privy to our secret sciences. 1673 Kirkman Wits Pref., The most part of these Pieces were written by such Penmen as were known to be the ablest Artists that ever this Nation produced, by Name Shake-spear, Fletcher, Johnson, Shirley, and others. 1710 Shaftesbury Charact. iii. ii. i. (1737) I. 224 Able Penmen rais'd to rehearse the Lives, and celebrate the high Actions of great Men. 1886 Dowden Shelley I. iv. 135 The grand ball..taxing to the utmost the powers of the penman who described the event next day in the Morning Herald. |
b. Const. of (that which is written). Now rare.
| 1610 Mirr. Mag. 604 The pen-man of my historie. 1624 Gataker Good Wife 1 The penman of it was Salomon. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 217 So doth the Penman of the Epistle to the Hebrewes. 1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. vii. 154 The Pen Men of the Holy Scriptures. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. I. 329 The inspiration of the Holy Spirit was not a mechanical dictation, which makes a man the pen rather than the penman of sacred utterance. |
4. Comb., as penman-like adj. (in quot., like the work of a penman).
| 1843 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. i. vii. §30 A violent, black, sharp, ruled penmanlike line. |