Cursive

Posted by R. Berg on November 15, 2003

In Reply to: Cursive posted by Brian from Shawnee on November 14, 2003

: : : : : What is the meaning of joined-up writing.
: : : : : thank you.

: : : : Sorry, I've never heard that expression. Anyone?

: : : This is where I found it. thanks.

: : : 'Now, how many autographs would you like? I can do joined-up writing now, you know!'

: : OK. It sound like it is referring to cursive writing (like the big kids do) rather than the block printing we all started out with.

: That's Gilderoy Lockhart who said that (after he had wiped his own memory clean using Ron's broken wand), in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I had never heard the expression before either, but I took it to mean cursive writing.

Cursive writing is called joined-up because adjacent letters in a word are connected (surprise!). The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary are soliciting examples of the phrase "joined-up writing" that can be shown to antedate 1983.

• Joined up thinking Henry 20/November/03