griffonage

English

Etymology

From French griffonner.

Noun

griffonage (countable and uncountable, plural griffonages)

1. (rare) Careless handwriting; a crude or illegible scrawl.
   • 1832, Frances Milton Trollope, “Domestic Manners of the Americans”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), published 1839:

     "We hastened to pack up our ‘trumpery’..and among the rest, my six hundred pages of griffonage."

   • 1834, Maria Edgeworth, Helen:

     There was a heap of little crumpled bills which, with Felicie's griffonage, Helen had thrown into her table-drawer.

   • 1838, C. M'Farlane, Esq., “The Lives and Exploits of Banditti and Robbers in all Parts of the World”, in The Quarterly Review, volume CXXI:

     He gave a sort of passport, a συμβολον ξενικον, authenticated with such a portentous griffonage as would have done credit to Ali Pacha.