[f. Gr. στενός narrow + -GRAPHY. Cf. F. sténographie (1812 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. The art of writing in shorthand.
1602. [J. Willis] (title), The Art of Stenographie, teaching … the way of compendious Writing.
1632. Brome, North. Lass, III. ii. Sure tis Stenography, every Character a word: and here and there one for a whole sentence.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, an. 1778. Although I did not write what is called stenography, or short-hand, in appropriated characters devised for the purpose, I had a method of my own of writing half-words, [etc.].
1838. J. Grant, Sk. Lond., 264. A gentleman who was exceedingly fond of stenography previous to the derangement of his intellects,… incessantly wrote shorthand to his own dictation, after he was placed in an asylum.
1908. Q. Rev., Oct., 528. Stenography has caused reporting to be more professional than in those days.
2. transf. and fig.
1647. Cleveland, Lond. Diurnal & Sel. Poems, 33. Oh the accurst Stenographie of fate! The Princely Eagle shrunke into a Bat.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. 8. In these prety Engines … by an Incomparable Stenography of Providence are lodged all the perfections of the largest Animals.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., vii. Mr. Pickwick was sufficiently versed in the stranger’s system of stenography to infer from this rapid and disjointed communication that [etc.].
1902. A. Symons, in Academy, 23 Aug., 200/1. A fine play is not the copy of an incident, or the stenography of a character.
1911. Q. Rev., July, 229. The speech of the stage had become a mere stenography.
Hence † Stenography v. [cf. STENOGRAPH v.]. trans., in quot. fig., to write or express in brief.
1652. E. Benlowes, Theoph. To my Fancie, Be Wit Stenography’d, yet free; ’Tis largest in Epitome.
