Derivatives of “agree”

In which direction do we write the loop the words agreeable, disagree, disagreeable, agreement, disagreement? From the shape of the forms I would be tempted to say that it isn’t in the same direction as the circle for “a” would be, that is to say I think it’s written in the counter-clockwise direction, which doesn’t follow the rule for joining circles. But it’s never explicitly mentioned in either the Pre-Anniversary or Anniversary manuals.


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  1. I took a look at the Anni manual with a magnifying glass, and it seems clear that "agreement" was written with a counterclockwise loop. "Agreeable" was too, though that stands to reason, since the b has to be well formed. Thoough it's hard to see, I think "disagree" is the same. But "disagreeable" has me flustered. Neither the d nor the b touches the top part of the loop; it looks like the loop was written, then the pen was lifted before writing the b.

    This all leads to the question of how Gregg, Mrs. Richmond, et al. wrote other free-standing loops such as anti- and -ingly.

  2. I've always written the circle vowels counter-clockwise when standing alone.

    The pen isn't really lifted in "disagreeable." The d stroke is hitting the top, but you can't tell since the loop overlaps it. Then the pen just sort of skates over the upper-right part of the loop leading into the b stroke. Mrs. Richmond made it all look so easy!

    One of the rules that takes some getting used to is the plural form of the disjoined circle/loop for -tic, -tical, -tically. It's counterclockwise except for the plural as in "politics," where you have to write clockwise to include the s. This can be really awkward at first–you have to think about it in advance–but it gets easier with practice.

    1. I think I wasn't completely clear in my description of "disagreeable" in the Anni manual. The d and b touch the loop, but it looks under a magnifying glass like the d touches slightly to the left of the peak of the loop, and the b touches slightly to the right of the peak. Either Richmond closed the loop and retraced the top of it exactly on her way to the b, or she inadvertently lifted her pen. (This little bit of sleuthing isn't really relevant to the question at hand, though.)

      In ordinary longhand, counterclockwise motion is the default; ditto in Pitman and some other shorthands. In Gregg, clockwise is the default, insofar as it is used in words like "knee" and "ate". It has been this way ever since the 1888 manual. I wonder why Gregg chose to do this, since he didn't have the reversing principle at that time, so that the counterclockwise circle didn't signal an r.

  3. Counterclockwise, including free standing circles. Try writing the phrase "yes, sir" or "agrees" clockwise, and you'll notice that it will be much slower. This motion is contrary to the origin of the aggr- outline: it comes from the loop shape that the a circle takes when joined to g if you were to write agr in full, and in this case the a is written clockwise.

    If you write the d in disagreeable with an angle slightly less than 45 degrees, you'll be able to insert the loop and the b while still maintaining the slant on the three strokes.

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