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prettygoodwordparaph (PAR-uhf, puh-RAF) - n., a flourish after a signature.
Also, fwiw, an obsolete name for a ¶, now called a pilcrow, used to mark paragraph breaks, but today the orthographic panache is the focus. This was originally done to make the signature even harder to forge. The paraph almost every American is familiar with is John Hancock's from the Declaration of Independence. First borrowed in the 14th century from Middle French paraphe, same meaning, from Old French paraffe, abbreviated signature, from Medieval Latin paraphus, paragraph, alternate form of Latin paragraphus, from Greek paragraphḗ, marked passage, usually done with a line beside the text, from paragraphein, to write beside, from para-, next to + graphein, to write -- in other words, the signature sense managed to loop back to the original root meaning.
---L.
Also, fwiw, an obsolete name for a ¶, now called a pilcrow, used to mark paragraph breaks, but today the orthographic panache is the focus. This was originally done to make the signature even harder to forge. The paraph almost every American is familiar with is John Hancock's from the Declaration of Independence. First borrowed in the 14th century from Middle French paraphe, same meaning, from Old French paraffe, abbreviated signature, from Medieval Latin paraphus, paragraph, alternate form of Latin paragraphus, from Greek paragraphḗ, marked passage, usually done with a line beside the text, from paragraphein, to write beside, from para-, next to + graphein, to write -- in other words, the signature sense managed to loop back to the original root meaning.
---L.
