† ˈpen-clerk Obs.
[f. pen n.2 + clerk.]
A ‘clerk’ whose scholarship extended merely to the use of the pen (as distinguished from clerk = clergyman or scholar); a clerk, a secretary; also fig. In quot. 1575, a user of the pen, writer.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 246 Þei wolen not presente a clerk able of kunnynge..but a kechen clerk as a penne clerk. 1560 Pilkington Expos. Aggeus (1562) 181 If he be but a pen-clarke. 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 56 Az bad a penclark az I am. 1602 R. T. 5 Godlie Serm. 175 The holy prophets and Apostles, the penclearkes and secretaries of the spirit of God. 1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. 1) 239 None could therein any way compare with our Practitioners and Pen-clarkes. |