Chirograph

Definitions

  • Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n Chirograph (Old. Law) A writing which, requiring a counterpart, was engrossed twice on the same piece of parchment, with a space between, in which was written the word chirographum, through which the parchment was cut, and one part given to each party. It answered to what is now called a charter party.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n chirograph A deed which, requiring a counterpart, was engrossed twice on the same piece of parchment with a space between, in which was written a word or words, or the capital letters of the alphabet, through which the parchment was cut and one part given to each party, so that the correspondence of the two might be easily shown. This practice was retained in England for the forms of agreement called fines of land until such agreements were abolished, in 1833.
    • n chirograph A contrivance for holding a beginner's hand in a prescribed position while be is learning to write.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Chirograph kī-rog-raf′ any written or signed document
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Gr. written with the hand; chei`r hand + gra`fein to write
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Gr. cheir, the hand, graphē, writing.

Usage

In literature:

How this might have struck a chirographical expert he did not know.
"Trent's Trust and Other Stories" by Bret Harte
Beyond the knowledge of possessing chirographic specimens of another language, neither party is wiser.
"Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar Life" by Thomas Wallace Knox
Let me look once more at the sweet chirograph!
"The Child Wife" by Mayne Reid
The superscription itself was a chirographic marvel.
"Kitty's Conquest" by Charles King
Some man was so deluded by magic that he denied Christ, and wrote his chirograph to the accursed devil, and entered into a compact with him.
"The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church" by Ælfric
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