Art & MusicGreek → English
Calligraphy
/kəˈlɪɡrəfi/noun
Decorative handwriting, and the art of producing it.
The Greek roots
κάλλος
kállos
beauty
γράφειν
gráphein
to write
Literally: “beautiful writing”
The story of the word
καλλιγραφία named a paid trade, not a hobby: scribes copying books for a living were judged on the evenness of their hand, and a beautiful copy cost more than a serviceable one. English took the word in the 1610s. The same κάλλος opens kaleidoscope, which David Brewster assembled in 1817 out of beautiful, form and watcher, and calisthenics, beauty plus strength.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1610s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
kaleidoscopecalisthenicsgraphicautograph
In a sentence
She does the wedding calligraphy herself and charges by the envelope.
Chinese calligraphy is judged on the order of the strokes as much as the result.