logographer
(ləˈgɒgrəfə(r))
[f. late L. logograph-us accountant (a. Gr. λογογράϕ-ος prose-writer, speech-writer, f. λόγο-ς word, speech, account + -γράϕος -writer) + -er1: see -grapher.]
† 1. A lawyer's clerk; an accountant. Obs.—0
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Logographers, Lawyers Clerks, they that write Pleas and Causes in the Law or Books of Accompt. 1696 in Phillips (ed. 5). 1735 Dyche & Pardon Dict., Logographer, an Accomptant or Writer of Books of Accompts. |
2. Gr. Antiq. A writer of traditional history in prose.
| 1846 Grote Greece i. iv. I. 117 The adventures which the ancient poets, epic, lyric, and tragic, and the logographers after them, connect with the name of the Argeian Iô. 1868 Gladstone Juv. Mundi viii. (1870) 265 Pherecydes, an Athenian logographer of the fifth century before Christ. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 42 After the manner of the early logographers, turning the Iliad into prose. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 634/1 Hellanicus, the most important of the Greek logographers. |
3. Gr. Antiq. A professional speech-writer.
| 1853 Grote Greece ii. lxxxvii. XI. 380 Before he [Demosthenes] acquired reputation as a public adviser, he was already known as a logographer, or composer of discourses to be delivered either by speakers in the public assembly or by litigants in the Dikastery. 1881 Q. Rev. Oct. 531 The plain man, intending to go to law, addressed himself to a professional speech-writer, or ‘logographer’. |
4. One who practises or is skilled in logography.
| 1860 in Worcester citing Smyth. |