In the news recently about the Sony hackers, this article talks about "stylometry," which is the study of linguistic style used to attribute authorship to anonymous or disputed documents. Preliminary analyses, according to the NY Times article, show that the Sony hackers actually could have been Russian, and not North Korean. What an interesting field of linguistics that must be.
You are correct, according to the OED. Interestingly, it is first cited from 1945: "R. G. Collingwood Idea of Nature 58 Scholars..have analysed the language of the Platonic dialogues statistically... Whatever view is taken of Platonic ‘stylometry’ in its more detailed development." I am surprised that it was used that early.
I recall that the French word for "pen" is stylo. A phonograph needle is also called a stylus. Then there's the slang term, "stylin'." That stretches the meaning in a different direction, though.
The Y in "style" and "stylus" seems to be a mistake. The English words can be traced to Latin "stilus" ("stake"). they were respelled with Y under the mistaken impression that they derived from Greek στῦλος "pillar".This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,
Yes, Goofy, the OED does provide a one-word etymology for "stylometry," being "style." However, when you click "style," it says: "Antiq. An instrument made of metal, bone, etc., having one end sharp-pointed for incising letters on a wax tablet, and the other flat and broad for smoothing the tablet and erasing what is written: = stylus1. Also applied to similar instruments in la..."
Originally posted by Kalleh: Yes, Goofy, the OED does provide a one-word etymology for "stylometry," being "style." However, when you click "style," it says: "Antiq. An instrument made of metal, bone, etc., having one end sharp-pointed for incising letters on a wax tablet, and the other flat and broad for smoothing the tablet and erasing what is written: = stylus1. Also applied to similar instruments in la..."
Thus, my answer to Geoff.
I think the equal sign means that the words have the same meaning? But they are two different words. Further down in the entry for style there is the more common definition of style: "The manner of expression characteristic of a particular writer..." The entry for stylometry doesn't say which meaning of style the word is derived from, but I would think it would be the literary one.This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,
