1.
bad handwriting; poor penmanship
Handwriting that is messy, illegible, or lacking in aesthetic quality.
彼は悪筆で有名だ。
He is famous for his bad handwriting.
悪筆で読めない字が多い。
His handwriting is so bad that many characters are unreadable.
医者の処方箋が悪筆で、薬剤師が読み取るのに苦労した。
The doctor's prescription was so poorly written that the pharmacist had trouble reading it.
A compound of 悪 (bad) + 筆 (brush/writing). In Japan, where calligraphy (書道) is part of school education, handwriting quality is taken more seriously than in many other cultures. Having 悪筆 can be seen as a minor social embarrassment.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 悪筆で有名: famous for bad handwriting
- 悪筆を直す: to fix one's bad handwriting
- ひどい悪筆: terrible handwriting
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 達筆: beautiful handwriting; fine penmanship — the opposite; a compliment for skilled calligraphy
- 癖字: idiosyncratic handwriting — not necessarily bad, just distinctive or hard for others to read
- 乱筆: messy writing — often used as a humble apology for one's own handwriting in letters