initialer

Noun

1. The artist who decorates the initial letters in an illuminated manuscript.
   • Often the ornamentor was an apprentice to the real artist of the scriptorium, the initialer. - 1946, St. Meinrad Historical Essays - Volume 8, page 24:
   • There are also several places where the copyist wrote in the letter but the initialer failed to complete his task (e.g., 18v20, 19r6). - 1984, Carl R. Trahman, David F. Bright, Edwin S. Ramage, Classical Texts and Their...
   • The printing press process borrowed the manuscript's assembly-line sequence of people and tasks, replacing rulers and scribes and initialers with typecasters who cut type, printers who designed the page and the book,...
2. The initial episode of a television show or series of films.
   • This maintains the standard of excellence set by the initialer and emerges as a well-knit chapter in the adventures of Leslie Charteris' popular modern Robin Hood, Simon Templar — otherwise known as "The Saint." - 1939...
   • Under Nicholas Ray's sock direction, the Marlon Brando mannerisms displayed in the initialer are gone and the role here carries much greater audience sympathy and response as a result. - 1991, Randall Riese, The...
   • Everything worked okay in the initialer except the one-dimensional and much too obvious prejudice of the personnel manager where Miss Carroll will work. - 1993, J. Spencer Beck, The Variety history of show business,...
3. One who initials a document.
   • Initials affixed in this manner do not, therefore, by themselves bring the initialer into any connection with the order for criminal purposes. - 1947, United States. Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of...
   • It appeared, however, that the citation contained the names of the initialers only insofar as they were so-called company personnel and that union employees who had also initialed in the area, while mentioned in the...
   • At the bottom were six blackouts "to protect the initials of FBI employees who saw the letter." I wondered why the letter was so internally popular at the Bureau and what the initialers were being "protected" from. -...