paraph

Etymology

John Hancock's signature on the United States Declaration of Independence is famous for its size and its bold paraph.

From Middle French paraphe, paraffe.

Pronunciation

Elizabeth I of England's signature, showing paraph

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpaɹəf/

Noun

Benjamin Franklin's signature, showing paraph

paraph (plural paraphs)

1. (chiefly historical) A flourish made after or below one's signature, originally to prevent forgery.

Verb

paraph (third-person singular simple present paraphs, present participle paraphing, simple past and past participle paraphed)

1. (transitive) To add a paraph to; to sign, especially with one's initials.

References

• “paraph” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “paraph” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "paraph" in WordNet 3.0, Princeton University, 2006.
• (etymology) Paraphe, based on the Collins French-English Dictionary, Harpercollins, Flexible edition, August 1990, →ISBN.
• Paraph, ArtLex Art Dictionary, Michael Delahu, The earliest form of ArtLex appeared on the Web in August, 19; ArtLex was last modified on October 24, 2007, Copyright © 1996-2007.