a. [f. as prec. + -IC: cf. GRAPHIC.] Of or pertaining to the art of tachygraphy or rapid writing; spec. applied to a cursive or running handwriting as opposed to one having separate and fully formed letters, also to writing with many contractions, ligatures, and compendia.
a. 1763. Byrom, Robbery Cambr. Coach, xii. ‘No Help!’ said I, ‘No Tachygraphic Pow’r, To interpose in this unequal Hour!’ Ibid., Art Eng. Poetry, vi. To learn the truly tachygraphic Plan.
1852. H. Rogers, Ecl. Faith (1853), 38. Amuse yourself (I know your old tachygraphic skill,) … by jotting down some fragments of our absurdities.
1879. Renouf, Hibbert Lect., 14. The Egyptians had from the earliest times used a tachygraphic or cursive character which is a rough and abridged form of the hieroglyphic.
1890. E. M. Thompson, in Classical Rev., May, 220/1. Thus was introduced into the Greek writing of the middle ages a new set of compendia commonly called tachygraphic signs.
So Tachygraphical a. [see -ICAL] = prec.
1764. Jefferson, Lett., Writ. 1892, I. 356. I will send you some of these days Shelton’s Tachygraphical Alphabet, and directions.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2556/1. The old character … was altered … and assumed somewhat of a cursive, or tachygraphical form.
