opisthograph, n. (a.) Gr. and Rom. Antiq.
(əʊˈpɪsθəʊgrɑːf, -æ-)
[ad. Gr. ὀπισθόγραϕος written on the back or cover, f. ὀπισθο- + -γραϕος written.]
A manuscript written on the back as well as the front of the papyrus or parchment; also, a slab inscribed on both sides. b. adj. = opisthographic.
| 1623 Cockeram, Opistograph, a booke written on the backe side. a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. Prol., Giving to one of his old acquaintance his Wallet, Books and Opistographs away went he [Diogenes] out of Town towards a little Hill or Promontory. 1876 Venables in Encycl. Brit. V. 209/2 Not a few of the slabs..bearing a pagan inscription on one side, and a Christian one on the other. These are known as opisthographs. 1885 W. M. Lindsay in Athenæum 5 Sept. 304/2 The fragments are opisthograph. |
So † opisˈthographal (obs.), opisthoˈgraphic, -ical adjs., written or inscribed on the back as well as the front; opisˈthography, the practice of writing on both sides of a papyrus, slab, etc.; concr. writing of this kind.
| 1684 H. More Answer 38 To write that which is last in the inside, and that which is first on the outside, [is] quite contrary to the mode of Opisthographal Writings. 1813 J. Forsyth Rem. Excurs. Italy 315 The opisthographic manuscripts required, I apprehend, a double leaf so glued that the fibres crossed. 1816 Singer Hist. Cards 124 It is Opisthographic, or printed on both sides of the vellum. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Opisthographical. 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. iii. iv. 138 Some Poems of the Ancients were tedious with Opistography, or endors'd Prolixity. |