α. 1600s literare, 1600s literarie, 1600s litterarie, 1600s–1700s litterary, 1600s– literary.
β. 1600s letterary.
literaryadj.n.
/ˈlɪt(ə)rəri/, U.S. /ˈlɪdəˌrɛri/ A. adj.† 3. That is communicated or conducted by correspondence by letter; epistolary. Obsolete.
1. Of or relating to the writing, study, or content of literature, esp. of the kind valued for quality of form; of the nature of literature. Also in early use: relating to letters or learning (cf. literature n. 1).Not recorded in Johnson 1755–75; but cf. quot. 1734.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > [adjective]
literalc1450
literate1558
bookish1567
paper1592
literary1605
literatory1652
belletristical1799
belletristic1821
belletrist1889
lit.1895
written1909
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > scholarly knowledge, erudition > [adjective] > relating to learning
yleredc897
scientialc1454
cunning?1520
scholarlike1547
Palladian1562
lettered1567
sophical1601
literary1605
learned1613
gnostic1656
mathetic1815
sophic1900
1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Bb3v History is Naturall, Civill, Ecclesiasticall & literary, whereof the three first I allow as extant, the fourth I note as deficient. View more context for this quotation
1612 S. Sturtevant Metallica To Rdr. sig. A His Literare Inuentions doe appeare and are knowne partly by his Printed Treatise of Dibere Adam which is a Scholasticall engin Aucomaton.
1646 J. Hall Horæ Vacivæ sig. A 3 Faint breathings of a minde burthened with other Literary employments.
1657 tr. J. Buccardus Prayse of Peireskius in W. Rand tr. P. Gassendi Mirrour of Nobility 246 A large Library, and other literary utensils.
1698 J. Strype tr. T. Smith in Life Sir T. Smith 64 Your Lordship was indued..in these light and literary Controversies [L. in his leuibus & literariis controuersiis], with an incredible sharpness, and an excellent Facility and Plenty.
1734 S. Johnson Let. 25 Nov. (1992) I. 6 The Publick would not give You a bad reception, if..You admitted..short literary Dissertations in Latin or English.
1738 E. Chambers Cycl. (ed. 2) (at cited word) We have daily Papers, weekly Papers,..political Papers, literary Papers, Papers of entertainment, &c.
1749 L. Evans Middle Brit. Col. (1755) 3 The Seats of some Half a Dozen Gentlemen, noted in the literary Way.
1779 S. Johnson Cowley in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets I. 2 His mother..struggling earnestly to procure him a literary education.
a1859 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1861) V. xxiii. 7 The parliamentary conflict on the great question of a standing army was preceded by a literary conflict.
1898 H. Calderwood D. Hume iii. 28 A large measure of literary ability was appearing in Scotland.
1900 J. G. Frazer Pausanias 68 The writer, it is plain, has exaggerated for the sake of literary effect.
1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Sept. 609/1 The articles which he ‘ghosted’ for Jerry Turnbull, a millionaire with literary ambitions.
1961 R. W. Burchfield in Ess. & Stud. 14 39 A large number of literary sources..are being systematically read against an Oxford dictionary.
1982 G. D. McLeod Essentially Canad. iv. 63 Popular fiction and literary fiction are not necessarily mutually exclusive forms of writing. A popular novel may have considerable literary merit.
2007 New Yorker 15 Oct. 98/2 The literary intricacy of this novel is what gives it its deep-shelved complexity and makes it a lovely essay on the fiction-writing impulse.
2. Of or relating to the letters of the alphabet, or (occasionally) another set of letters or symbols used as an alphabet. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > written character > [adjective]
literala1500
characteristical1588
paper1592
characterical1595
literary1646
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica i. ix. 37 Our first and literary apprehensions being commonly instructed in Authors which handle nothing else [but idle fictions] . View more context for this quotation
1679 R. Baxter Nonconformists Plea for Peace Errata Reader, The smaller literary mistakes are left to thy own ingenuity, the grosser errours of the Press, thou art desired thus to correct.
1769 Middlesex Jrnl. 8–11 July 4/2 A complete set of Literary Cards, for teaching children to read, spell, count.
a1773 T. Snelling View Silver Coin Scotl. (1774) 14 The reverse shews the royal arms of Scotland..extending through the literary circle.
1851 G. Borrow Lavengro I. i. 13 So far from being quick and clever like my brother, and able to rival the literary feat which I have recorded of him, many years elapsed before I was able to understand the nature of letters, or to connect them.
1883 I. Taylor Alphabet II. vii. 100 A rude people, adopting a literary alphabet, transferred to the new characters the corresponding names with which they were familiar.
1995 D. P. Hupchick Confl. & Chaos Eastern Europe 137 Simeon's state forged the mechanism for preserving Byzantium's Eastern European civilization among the non-Byzantine Orthodox Slavs by creating the Cyrillic literary alphabet.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > letter > [adjective]
paper1592
epistolical1615
epistolary1627
epistolar1649
literal1650
literary1656
epistolic1670
epistolatory1675
1656 J. Fowler Hist. Troubles Suethland & Poland 93 Duke Charles, not satisfied with this literary assecuration, wrote back unto the King.
1668 N. Fairfax Let. 28 Dec. in H. Oldenburg Corr. (1968) V. 284 I am sensible how much I am..in a neglect on my part as to our literary exchanges.
1757 T. Smollett Compl. Hist. Eng. I. ii. 318 Henry..endeavoured by a literary correspondence to..reestablish the good understanding between England and the See of Rome.
1773 R. Graves Spiritual Quixote I. v. ix. 292 After two or three clandestine interviews, Mr. Clayton was again obliged to leave Bath; and we again renewed our literary correspondence.
1784 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. (ed. 5) (at cited word) Literary is not properly used of missive letters. It may be said, this epistolary correspondence..oftener than literary.]
4.
a. Of a person or group: engaged in the writing or critical appreciation of works of literature; having a thorough knowledge of literature; spec. engaged in literature as a profession; cf. literary agent n. at Compounds, literary editor n. at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [adjective]
literary1729
lit.1895
1729 Present State Republick Lett. 4 283 The tenth, of Literary Societies, and the Conversations of the Learned.
1756 W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans IV. 110 These quotations are made use of..to deter certain schoolmen..employing their hours in censuring, or rather abusing those literary personages.
1766 H. Walpole Let. 26 July in D. Hume Lett. (1932) II. 423 Your Set of litterary Friends are..exceedingly absurd. They hold a consistory to consult how to argue with a madman.
1778 H. Thrale Thraliana Dec. (1942) i. 355 Warburton..expressed his Concern that so literary a Man should be led away by the Methodists.
1809 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 21 192 A few years since, he married Miss Edgeworth, a lady of a respectable literary family in Ireland.
1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes v. 253 In the true Literary Man there is thus ever..a sacredness.
1852 E. C. Gaskell Cranford in Househ. Words No. 90 268/1 Miss Jenkins..on the strength of..a pretty good library of divinity, considered herself literary, and looked upon any conversation about books as a challenge to her.
1895 Bookman Oct. 14/1 Artistic and literary Glasgow owed much to his genial energy.
1910 J. Erskine Leading Amer. Novelists 11 He was introduced to the Friendly Club, a literary society that met once a week at the home of some member.
1962 Listener 27 Dec. 1104/3 Anyone who thinks of the Fire Service as a soft option that literary types skived into during the war ought to have watched ‘Fire Rescue’.
1995 Private Eye 8 Sept. 10/2 [He] will talk to women spectacle wearers to find out if literary wit Dorothy Parker was right when she said men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses!
b. Of an award, event, etc.: organized or given by such a person or group.
ΚΠ
1745 Polit. Cabinet Jan. Index Magnificence of the Spanish Embassador in Lisbon... Literary Prizes establish'd there.
1791 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 799/1 He [sc. Dr. Johnson] would not deign to speak to her..:‘You and he are to meet soon, on a literary party; plead for me.’
1827 N.Y. Mirror 28 Apr. 319/1 Literary Prizes—The proprietors of ‘The Memorial’ published yearly in Boston, offer the following premiums for contributions to their ‘Christmas and New Year's offering’.
1853 C. M. Yonge Heir of Redclyffe I. xv. 251 She was..the leading lady of the place.., giving literary parties, with a degree of exclusiveness that made admission to them a privilege.
1931 R. Campbell Georgiad iii. 51 O Dinners! take my curse upon you all, But literary dinners most of all.
1941 V. Nabokov Real Life S. Knight (1945) i. 6 Last winter at a literary lunch, in South Kensington, a celebrated old critic..was heard to remark..‘A dull man.’
1978 Bookseller 17 June 3188/3 The English-Speaking Union are to launch a series of literary luncheons.
1993 G. Brown in M. Bradbury & A. Motion New Writing 2 339 One evening, drunk and fizzing with recklessness, gatecrash a literary party.
2006 Independent on Sunday 22 Jan. (ABC Mag.) 25/2 When a slow read wins a literary prize, sales do improve—but only modestly.
5. Of language: having characteristics associated with works of literature or other formal writing; refined, elegant.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > elegance > [adjective] > refined or cultured
polite?a1500
fileda1533
facetious1542
exquisited1581
refined1582
smooth1589
perpolite1592
terse1628
washed1628
refine1646
parliamentary1789
literary1793
urbane1800
1793 H. Marsh tr. J. D. Michaelis Introd. New Test. I. i. iv. 167 The writers of the New Testament in general have never pretended to the beauties of literary language; and St. Paul, who was the most able, has used in the epistles the same expressions, as he would have used in common conversation.
1821 W. Irving Life & Lett. (1864) II. 49 I have been leading a ‘miscellaneous’ kind of life at Paris, if I may use a literary phrase.
1824 G. Campbell Lect. on Pulpit Eloquence 197 There is indeed a sort of literary diction, which sometimes the inexperienced are ready to fall into insensibly, from their having been much more accustomed to the school..than to the scenes of real life and conversation.
1874 Every Sat. 7 Feb. 152/1 The language is that of an old lady dictating to her grandchild by her fireside, and never once stopping to recast a sentence or turn a phrase into a more literary or less colloquial form.
1901 Country Life Illustr. 18 May 638/1 The whole of the language is very ‘literary’, but the play is not dramatic.
1920 19th Cent. Dec. 942 A patchwork of stilted literary phrases jumbled together.
1989 R. Alter Pleasures of Reading i. 48 The distinctive resources of literary language do not work like a simple on-off switch, marking this as literary and that as not.
2001 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 21 June 65/3 [They] speak a dialectless, self-consciously literary English.
6. Appearing in literature or books; fictional.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > fiction > [adjective]
madea1387
feigned1623
fictious1641
fictitious1773
literary1842
fictional1843
1842 E. Lee tr. L. Aimé-Martin Educ. Mothers & Families ii. xxiii. 138 Such is the type of our literary creations, the heroes of our dramas and our fictions.
1865 Bibliotheca Sacra Apr. 193 We cannot help feeling that he looks upon Jesus rather as a good literary hero, than as his Saviour from sin and death.
1894 New Ireland Rev. Oct. 532 His social personality is much more winning and more human than the literary counterpart that peeps out from his books.
1919 T. M. Campbell Life & Wks. F. Hebbel xi. 184 His strength lay in his analysis of the emotions in literary characters and situations.
1982 Washington Post (Nexis) 27 June i. 6 I get ideas from literary heroines.
1994 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 21 Aug. b5 Perhaps the most successful Canadian literary cat is the eponymous feline of Montrealer Yves Beauchemin's The Alley Cat.
2007 K. M. Pyrek Forensic Sci. under Siege i. 3 Another iconoclastic literary sleuth, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.
7. Of the visual arts, music, etc.: concerned with depicting or representing a story or other literary work; that refers or relates to a text; that creates a complex or finely crafted narrative like that of a work of literature.Sometimes in a derogatory sense, implying dependency on a text at the expense of freedom of expression.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [adjective] > qualities of works generally
wateryc1230
polite?a1500
meagre1539
over-laboured1579
bald1589
spiritless1592
light1597
meretricious1633
standing1661
effectual1662
airy1664
severe1665
correct1676
enervatea1704
free1728
classic1743
academic1752
academical1752
chaste1753
nerveless1763
epic1769
crude1786
effective1790
creative1791
soulless1794
mannered1796
manneristical1830
manneristic1837
subjective1840
inartisticala1849
abstract1857
inartistic1859
literary1900
period1905
atmospheric1908
dateless1908
atmosphered1920
non-naturalistic1925
self-indulgent1926
free-styled1933
soft-centred1935
freestyle1938
pseudish1938
decadent1942
post-human1944
kitschy1946
faux-naïf1958
spare1965
1900 Art Jrnl. 62 356/2 Hirschl's pictures..appeal chiefly to cultured audiences..; and since his work is literary art, it should remain literary in the best sense of the term.
1928 Morning Post 20 Oct. 10/6 The music is too ‘literary’, but its craftsmanship and imagination are undeniable.
1970 Daily Tel. 8 June 12/8 It is accepted by many as a compliment rather than as an insult to describe a painting as literary.
1988 Mod. Painters Autumn 51/2 The atmosphere..is literary in the contrived and artificial sense, the experience behind the painting inauthentic.
2005 B. Vidal in M. Aragay Bks. in Motion 267 The literary film has taken centre stage in the debates around women's cinema especially after the international success of Orlando and The Piano.
B. n.
1. A person who is engaged in literature as an occupation or interest; esp. an author. Chiefly in plural.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [noun] > literary man
scholarc1600
man of letters1645
literator1710
literarian1740
literary gent1773
literary1801
littérateur1806
1801 T. Campbell 24 Apr. in Life & Lett. (1850) I. 362 Among the literaries, I have met with Mrs. Inchbald and Mrs. Barbauld.
1846 F. Marryat Valerie vii, in New Monthly Mag. Oct. 130 I've often thought I could have given a better answer than I've heard some of your great literaries.
1859 Hutchings' Illustr. Calif. Mag. Aug. 63/2 The diversities of descriptions, opinions and names..among learned writers and scientific men, may well cause a smile with literaries and readers.
1923 U. L. Silberrad Lett. Jean Armiter vi. 145 Obstacles..may be a blessing in disguise to half-baked literaries.
1996 Scotl. on Sunday (Nexis) 11 Feb. 18 Open your dailies and there they all are, a riot of column inches, written..by Underwood, Ubogu and Grayson, to mention but three budding literaries.
2. U.S. A literary club or society; an event or gathering with a literary theme, typically also involving music and debate. Chiefly in plural. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [noun] > club or society
literary circle1772
Athenaeum1807
literary1875
1875 Warren (Pa.) Ledger 28 Jan. The young people of this place, and vicinity, take a deep interest in spelling schools, literaries, etc.
1897 K. M. Cleary Like Gallant Lady iv. 55 Indeed, we have society out here... We have dances, and literaries, and box parties.
1928 Amer. Speech 4 130 In many districts a ‘literary’ is held every Friday night, when the ‘Sandhillers’ of this district recite and sing and debate.
1936 E. G. Barnard Rider Cherokee Strip 157 We spent a happy winter at this work and visiting our neighbors and going to the ‘literaries’ and dances.
1986 United Press Internat. (Nexis) 15 June At school that first winter, even before she ‘spoke any American’, she played the organ for the Friday literaries.
Compounds
literary adviser n. (also literary advisor) a person who gives advice on matters relating to literature.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [noun] > literary man > literary adviser
literary adviser1801
1801 J. Stoddart Remarks Local Scenery & Manners Scotl. II. xvi. 210 Among the many evils, which he derived from his residence in Edinburgh, it was not the least, that he was prevailed on, by his literary advisers there.
1862 G. H. Lewes Let. 10 May in ‘G. Eliot’ Lett. (1956) IV. 31 Smith again offered me the editorship of the C[ornhill] M[agazine] which I again declined; but accepted the post of Literary Advisor.
1920 Editor (Ridgewood, New Jersey) 1 July 93/1 A quarter of a century ago Ripley Hitchcock, then literary advisor to a large New York publishing house, [etc.].
1950 ‘E. Crispin’ Frequent Hearses i. 12 I'm acting as literary advisor in connexion with a film they're making.
2008 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Sept. 230/1 White Heat reveals the epistolary ‘romance’ between..Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, gunrunner and radical abolitionist turned literary adviser.
literary agent n. an agent (now typically a professional one) who acts on behalf of an author in dealing with publishers and others involved in promoting his or her work.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > publishing > publisher > [noun] > literary agent
literary agent1794
1794 Domest. Anecd. French Nation 260 Diderot..was honoured by the favours of the Empress of Russia, and was considered as her literary agent at Paris.
1857 G. H. Lewes Let. 11 Feb. in ‘G. Eliot’ Lett. (1954) II. 295 When I am no longer here to act as go-between he [sc. ‘George Eliot’] must, I think, become his own literary Agent.
1968 Writers' & Artists' Year Bk. 242 Literary agents exist to sell saleable material.
2001 D. Handler Cold Blue Blood (2002) xv. 227 Seven A-list Hollywood producers..called his literary agent to find out if he was interested in signing a development deal.
literary agency n. (originally) the function or capacity of literary agent; (now usually) a firm providing the services of a literary agent.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > publishing > publisher > [noun] > literary agent > literary agency
literary agency1829
1829 London Lit. Gaz. 19 Dec. 621/2 A curious plan of literary agency is advertised in our usual columns; if the proposer gets as many fees as we get MSS., he will find it a flourishing concern.
1851 Notes & Queries 28 June 527 (advt.) Literary Agency—Mr. F. G. Tomlins..is desirous to make it known that a Twenty years' experience with the Press and Literature,..enables him to give advice and information to Authors, Publishers and Persons wishing to communicate with the Public.
1931 H. L. Mencken Diary 30 July (1989) 32 The last time I heard from her she was running a literary agency, but it was making heavy weather.
2010 Sunday Times (Nexis) 23 May (Culture section) 10 Publishing companies and literary agencies are feeling the pinch, and few are willing to gamble on books that are less than sure-fire hits.
literary circle n. a particular group of people involved in writing or studying literature; (with the) the literary world.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [noun] > club or society
literary circle1772
Athenaeum1807
literary1875
1772 Middlesex Jrnl. 21 July 1/3 Perhaps there is not, in the whole literary circle, so contemptible a character as that of..Doctor Kenrick!
1794 H. L. Piozzi Brit. Synonymy I. 26 Amical..is very lately come very much into favour, and one hears it now perpetually in fashionable and literary circles.
1882 M. Oliphant Lit. Hist. Eng. II. 225 At a later period Hazlitt joined this literary circle, then Leigh Hunt; and it began to be assailed as the ‘Cockney School’.
1970 R. Freeman Repentance & Revolt iii. 82 The protests against the cruel and vulgar phases of Roman life became louder. They were no longer confined to the literary circle.
2002 Brisbane News 26 June 3/2 Brisbane author Allison Rushby is an exponent of what is known in literary circles as ‘chick lit’.
literary critic n. a person who engages in literary criticism, esp. as an occupation.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > literary criticism > [noun] > literary critic
book answerer1711
literary critic1758
1758 ‘B.’ tr. P. L. M. de Maupertuis Eloge p. xiii, in C.-L. de S. de Montesquieu Refl. Causes Rise & Fall Rom. Empire (ed. 4) These philosophical and literary critics gave him little uneasiness.
1837 Edinb. Rev. Jan. 410 He [sc. Hazlitt] was..a literary critic, without much depth of literature, except within narrow limits of time and language.
1962 Shakespeare Q. 13 460 The various and sometimes contradictory meanings of the actual lines of a play, the literary critic can tease out for himself—indeed he is often over-cunning in this respect.
2007 S. Massotty tr. C. Nooteboom Lost Paradise ii. ii. 82 It was Friday, and still too early to buy the newspaper for which he worked as a literary critic.
literary-critical adj. of or relating to literary criticism.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > literary criticism > [adjective]
literary-critical1820
1820 London Lit. Gaz. 17 June 398/2 He asserts that literary critical independence cannot co-exist with the circumstance of booksellers having propriety in a Review.
1871 Musical World 21 Oct. 672/1 I regarded music..as the fortunate means..of saving me as an artist and preventing me from pursuing a merely literary-critical career.
1971 D. Crystal Linguistics 107 An ‘objective correlative’ (to apply T. S. Eliot's literary critical term in a context where it was never intended).
2006 Church Times 13 Apr. 29/2 A different sort of book, discussing fewer hymns in more depth,..in a literary-critical style, drawing out more of the theological and devotional meaning.
literary criticism n. the art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of a literary work; consideration or analysis of a text (cf. text n.1 1, text n.1 Additions) in relation to language, structure, biography, history, etc., or (in later use, frequently with modifying word) by a particular philosophical, political, or linguistic method; (also) an instance of this, esp. in a written form; a school or method of criticizing literature.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > literary criticism > [noun]
historical criticism1658
literary criticism1751
lit. crit.1963
1751 Ess. Antiq., Dignity, & Advantages Living in Garret 29 He thinks literary Criticism first began in a Garret, and can only be brought to Perfection there.
1751 R. Schomberg Ietro-rhapsodia 9 (note) These Gentlemen have even condescended so low as unnecessary literary Criticisms, what Authority have they.
1785 W. Shaw Mem. S. Johnson 138 This [sc. Johnson's edition of Shakespeare]..is become a valuable acquisition to literary criticism.
1841 Mirror Lit., Amusem., & Instr. 7 Aug. 88/1 Mrs. Montague had..presumed to write a literary criticism upon a production of Pope, for which she was harshly treated by him.
1883 A. Trollope Autobiogr. II. xiv. 88 Literary criticism..has become a profession,—but it has ceased to be an art.
1905 C. F. Aked Courage of Coward (1907) 94 We have seen born, grow, flourish, a literary criticism of the Bible.
1965 O. Cargill Toward Pluralistic Crit. i. 9 Freudian literary criticism, a generic term for all types of analysis dealing with the creative psyche,..contains no inherent compulsion to abandon the text.
1987 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 6 Dec. vi. 110 Literary feminism has emerged as a countervailing force to deconstruction, helping to restore history to a respectable place in literary criticism.
2004 M. Baghramian Relativism (2005) i. iii. 107 This move from author to text was the harbinger of the new ‘anti-humanism’ and the proclamation of the..‘death of the author’..has become one of the battle-cries of postmodernist literary criticism.
literary editing n. the work of a literary editor; editing with a focus on literary style.
ΚΠ
1861 Frank Leslie's Illustr. Newspaper 29 June 1/2 The voice of the press is unanimous in its praise of the great Pictorial History of the War, not only as regards its able literary editing, but as to its large, elegant type, thick and splendid paper, [etc.].
1919 Nation 30 Aug. 307/2 They are all pervaded by a conception that makes the whole difference between good literary editing and bad: they conceive Virgil as a living poet.
1996 K. Jensen Whole Men iii. 43 Curnow thought that low standards of literary editing had allowed ‘[hobbyists] and ungifted amateurs’ to be published.
2000 W. Coleman Tribal Talk v. 148 Literary editing was often necessary in order to render some interviews more readable according to the conventions of standard English prose.
literary editor n. (a) the editor of the literary section of a newspaper or magazine; (b) = editor n. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > publishing > editing for publication > [noun] > editor
editionera1646
editor1646
undertaker1685
editoress1737
sorter1758
editress1775
rédacteur1785
redactor1793
literary editor1801
ed.1806
redacter1816
editrix1838
reworker1876
editor1881
rewrite1918
society > communication > journalism > journalist > editor of journal or newspaper > [noun] > literary editor
literary editor1801
lit. ed.1932
1801 Gaz. U.S. (Philadelphia) 22 Dec. This literary editor ought to be told of Virgil, a very famous man, and of Shakspeare too.
1809 Brit. Critic 1 Sept. 241 No literary editor has given his name to this work, consequently the frequent disputes against the editor of the works in 1800 are the contest of anonymous against anonymous.
1932 H. Nicolson Diary 19 Oct. (1966) 122 Round to the New Statesman. Kingsley Martin indicates that he wants me to become the literary editor when Ellis Roberts goes.
1963 P. Larkin Let. 1 Feb. in Sel. Lett. (1992) 350 I heard rather too much from my literary editors, and this provoked me to sign the pledge again as far as reviewing was concerned.
2008 Private Eye 26 Dec. 5/2 Since the axing of the obituaries editor, the literary editor, columnists.., and sportswriters.., the blood-letting has continued unstoppably.
literary-edit v. [after literary editor n.] now rare transitive to edit (proofs, etc.) paying particular attention to literary style; (also) to act as the literary editor of.
ΚΠ
1923 T. E. Lawrence Let. 13 Dec. (1938) 443 Hogarth will literary-edit the proofs for me: & Kennington art-edit the blocks.
1937 F. M. Ford Let. 17 Feb. (1965) 271 The eccentric Principal, Brewer, who once humorously subedited—or rather literary-edited the Spectator for three weeks.
literary editorship n. the position or occupation of literary editor.
ΚΠ
1837 G. G. Cunningham Lives Eminent Englishmen VIII. 240 In 1796 he undertook the literary editorship of the ‘Monthly Magazine’, which he enriched to a great extent with his own pieces.
1932 H. Nicolson Diary 23 Feb. (1966) 110 Leonard Woolf has an idea that I should take on the literary editorship of the New Statesman.
2000 Times (Nexis) 23 Aug. After becoming the TLS's poetry and fiction editor, literary editorships followed at The Observer and The Independent on Sunday.
literary executor n. a person entrusted with a dead writer's papers and copyrighted and unpublished works.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal profession > lawyer > [noun] > legal representative or agent > other legal agents
pettifactor1586
suit-broker1632
literary executor1797
paralegal1969
1797 Lloyd's Evening Post 13 Nov. 478/3 This pamphlet is not purely from the pen of Mr. Burke; but receives the finishing touch of his literary Executors.
1868 M. E. Grant Duff Polit. Surv. 105 Mr. Senior's conversations..which we trust his literary executor will soon publish.
1936 Discovery Jan. 28/2 The literary executors of the late Professor Hicks are to be congratulated.
2002 H. Holt Leonora (2003) iv. 46 You're an experienced literary executor—you must know the ropes by now.
literary gent n. British colloquial a man, esp. of high social standing, who writes or critiques works of literature; (also) a writer who expresses his literary knowledge in a refined manner.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [noun] > literary man
scholarc1600
man of letters1645
literator1710
literarian1740
literary gent1773
literary1801
littérateur1806
1773 Prudential Lovers I. xx. 214 We have resolved to quote no Latin in this history, thereby laying ourselves under the..lash of Messieurs les Critiques; not that we would..insinuate, these literary Gents don't understand the classics.
1850 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis II. xxxiv. 336 Doctor Johnson has been down the street many a time with ragged shoes... You literary gents are better off now.
1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier xii. 243 Ten years ago..the typical literary gent wrote books on baroque architecture.
2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Nexis) 12 Oct. e6 Tom..is a transplant from Britain. He is a literary gent, an expert on the 19th-century novel and a writer of imitation Victorian fiction.
literary historian n. an expert in or student of literary history.
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1764 Crit. Rev. July 4 Political and military transactions do not properly come under the cognizance of a literary historian.
1842 N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 431 ‘He’, says a German literary historian, ‘who would take the trouble of collecting all the historic romances, would succeed in bringing together a complete series of narrations of historical events, from the tenth to the sixteenth century.’
1957 P. Larkin in Manchester Guardian 23 July 4/3 He [sc. Frank Kermode] labels Hulme as a romantic, [and] knocks on the head ‘the dissociation of sensibility’ as a convenient fantasy of literary historians.
2007 Los Angeles Times (Electronic ed.) 20 June e1 A good literary history is a story about stories, and a good literary historian..has regard but not reverence for his subject.
literary history n. the history of the treatment of, and references to, a particular theme, event, etc., in literature; (more generally) the history of literature; history in terms of literary events and personalities; (also) an instance of this; a work of this nature.
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[1605 [see sense A. 1]. ]
1692 J. Dunton Young-students-libr. Index Caves Literary History of Ecclesiastical Writers.
1737 W. Warburton Let. 24 Nov. in J. Boswell Life Johnson (1791) I. 3 The art..of adding agreements to the most agreeable subject in the world, which is literary history.
1783 J. Beattie Diss. Moral & Crit. 557 See Mrs. Dobson's Literary History of the Troubadours.
a1832 J. T. Graves Rom. & Canon Law in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) II. 785/1 The literary history of the early Greek collections has been carefully illustrated by Biener.
1887 A. W. Ward Marlowe's Tragical Hist. Doctor Faustus (ed. 2) Introd. p.xv The tradition of the original Don Juan.., who has a literary history second in interest only to that of Faustus himself.
1960 Guardian 2 Nov. 11/2 For Lawrence to be confined always to dirty-book shops would be perhaps the greatest irony in literary history.
2003 G. Heng Empire of Magic i. 56 The circuit of desire animating courtly romance—a circuit of desire that has always been assumed, in the literary history of romance, to be heterosexual.
literary property n. (a) property consisting of written or printed compositions; (b) the exclusive right of publication as recognized and limited by law.
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1747 W. Warburton (title) A letter from an author to a Member of Parliament, concerning literary property.
1754 R. Francklin Short State of Case 1 The Law we know in Regard to literary Property, and the Rights of Authors, Booksellers, Printers, &c. is extremely vague and uncertain.
1774 S. Johnson Let. 7 Feb. in J. Boswell Life Johnson (1792) II. 138 The question of Literary Property is this day before the Lords.
1823 in C. Warren Hist. Harvard Law School (1908) I. 412 It is to be regretted that literary property here is held by an imperfect tenure, there being no other protection for it than the provisions of an inefficient act of Congress.
1861 W. M. Thackeray Lovel Widower i. 35 This eligible literary property [sc. the Museum] my friend Honeyman, with his wheedling tongue, induced me to purchase.
1905 Sewanee Rev. 13 333 The Middle Ages had no conception of literary property and no one in that period hesitated to take hold of the work even of a contemporary and amplify it or abridge it to suit his tastes.
2009 J. M. Garon Independent Filmmaker's Law & Business Guide v. 83 The filmmaker may offer the rights holder a payment of $100 for the literary property,..as well as 1 percent of the gross income from all distribution income.
literary theorist n. a person who theorizes about literature; an expert in or student of literary theory.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [noun] > literary movements or theories > adherent of
modernist1703
symbolist1812
romanticist1821
classicist1827
romantic1827
symbolizer1854
archaist1867
realist1868
verist1884
naturalist1888
naturist1892
Teutonist1894
veritist1894
literary theorist1896
neoclassicist1899
social realist1909
futurist1911
postmodernist1914
vorticist1914
postmodern1917
Scythian1923
surrealist1925
populist1930
ultraist1931
socialist-realist1935
lettrist1946
New Negro1953
formalist1955
pre-modernist1962
Scyth1972
dirty realist1987
po-mo1996
1896 PMLA 11 156 It is still clear that the critic's interest and aim is the beau, rather than the vrai. And so it continues with the French critics and literary theorists.
1943 J. W. H. Atkins Eng. Literary Crit. iv. 89 It is neither as a literary theorist nor yet as a judicial critic that his best work on behalf of literature was done.
2008 New Yorker 24 Mar. 80/2 The seriousness of history..was in danger of being destroyed by literary theorists who insisted on the constructedness, the fictionality, of all historical writing.
literary theory n. the field of study concerned with inquiry into the evaluation, analysis, and understanding of literary works and (now also) other texts (cf. text n.1 Additions), later often incorporating concepts from other disciplines, such as philosophy, politics, or sociology; a theory relating to this.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > literary criticism > [noun] > types of literary criticism
criticism1625
critical theory1799
literary theory1807
autocriticism1820
pseudo-criticism1851
Formgeschichte1923
form-criticism1928
form-history1928
practical criticism1929
New Criticism1941
contextualism1955
patternism1956
objectivism1961
narratology1971
new historicism1972
deconstruction1973
post-structuralism1975
deconstructionism1980
theory1982
1807 P. Stockdale Lect. Truly Eminent Eng. Poets II. xx. 619 Pure impartiality, and equity, are favourite objects in my moral, and literary theory.
1830 S. Morgan France in 1829–30 II. 211 His especial department relates to music, painting, and literary theory.
1883 H. S. Maine Diss. Early Law & Custom 15 Few literary theories of modern mintage have more to recommend them.
1942 Mod. Lang. Rev. 37 132 Although he never sets out to undermine the structure of contemporary criticism, he undoubtedly hastens the changes that come about in eighteenth-century aesthetics and literary theory.
1978 in S. Chatman Story & Disc. i. 18 Literary theory is the study of the nature of literature.
1982 J. Culler On Deconstruction (1983) Pref. 11 They are able to welcome theories that challenge the assumptions of orthodox contemporary psychology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, sociology, or historiography, and this makes theory—or literary theory—an arena of lively debate.
1987 New Republic 26 Oct. 28/3 In matters of literary theory the discourse is spankingly up to date. There is talk of narrativity, of canon-formation, canonicity.
1991 Atlantic Mar. 78/2 [They] denied any connection between De Man's political writings and his literary theories.
2004 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 2 Dec. 18/1 These are old questions in literary theory, which go back at least as far as the New Criticism's worry about ‘the intentional fallacy’.
literary translator n. a person who translates works of literature from one language into another, esp. professionally.
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1824 Somerset House Gaz. 19 June 157/1 There is great latitude of paraphrase granted to a literary translator.
1904 D. F. Canfield Corneille & Racine in Eng. xi. 177 The conscientious literary translators of the Restoration are far away from these practical playwrights who adapt their work to the actual stage, to the English stage.
1958 Times 23 Aug. 8/2 The association had literary translators in mind mainly, but scientific translators would be welcomed.
2007 New Yorker 26 Nov. 163/1 Literary translators tend to divide into what one could call originalists and activists.
literary world n. (with the) the section of society involved in the production of works of literature; authors, publishers, etc., considered collectively.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary world > [noun]
literary world1727
book world1784
1727 W. Warburton Crit. & Philos. Enq. Causes Prodigies & Miracles ii. 134 Our invincible Monarch, after his accomplished Toils of Empire, has now got Time..to cast his Eye upon the literary World.
1840 T. B. Macaulay in Edinb. Rev. Jan. 520 In 1698, Collier published his ‘Short View..’, a book which threw the whole literary world into commotion.
1967 Guardian 14 Sept. 2/5 A highlight of the literary world..a Foyles Luncheon.
2002 J. Eccleshare Guide to Harry Potter Novels ii. 28 She had become an international star with a status far beyond the literary world.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1605