[Vocabulary] hand-xeroxed and compulsively readable

[Eway]

Dear Teachers,

I read this from The Right to Write by Julia Cameron:

"This afternoon I received a manuscript in the mail. It was bulky, hand-xeroxed, and compulsively readable."

Does "hand-xeroxed" actually mean "written by hand"? And, is "compulsively readable" readable or not anyway?

 

[SoothingDave]

"Hand xeroxed" doesn't make any sense to me.

I think they mean it was "compelling" when they say "compulsively readable."

 

[JMurray]

As SoothingDave says, "hand-xeroxed" doesn't really make sense. It certainly doesn't mean hand-written but it could mean that the pages had been placed on the xerox machine one-by-one by hand, rather than fed in automatically as some machines can do. Although, how the recipient would know the copies were done this way is a mystery.

not a teacher

 

[bhaisahab]

This is a hand crank xerox machine:
Google Image Result for http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/mimeograph-machine.gif

 

[JMurray]

This is a hand crank xerox machine:
Google Image Result for http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/mimeograph-machine.gif

This is not a xerox machine though, even if we use "xerox" generically, meaning any type of photocopying machine whatever the brand. The mimeograph worked on an entirely different, stencil-based system and was largely obsolete well before the "The Right To Write" was published in 1999. However the writer may have noticed that the manuscript had indeed been mimeographed, but to then describe it as xeroxed would be a mistake.

not a teacher

 

[5jj]

Surely not, if he was using the word in the generic sense, any more than it's a 'mistake' to say "I hoovered the floor this morning" if I used a Dyson.

Incidentally, my generation of teachers in England would probably have said "This afternoon I received a manuscript in the post. It was bulky, roneoed, and compulsively readable."

 

[JMurray]

By "generically" I mean "xerox" referring to any type of photocopier (Canon, Minolta, Xerox etc). A mimeograph is not a photocopier, whereas Dyson and Hoover are both vacuum cleaners. I take your point though.
I too remember copies that had been the roneoed or gestetnered.
I believe Gestetner currently make a highly evolved type of mimeograph using digital technology, but it isn't hand-cranked.

not a teacher

 

[5jj]

I too remember copies that had been the roneoed or gestetnered.
I believe Gestetner currently make a highly evolved type of mimeograph using digital technology, but it isn't hand-cranked.

The last Roneos, Gestetners and Bandas (remember them?) that I used back in the 1970s were not hand-cranked either. They had a wonderful inbuilt technology that caused them to shred and/or crumple the copies if you set the speed at anything more than a very slow hand-crank speed. I remember one much-loved technician in a school in which I taught just before photocopiers took over completely; he carefully maintained an old hand-crank Gestetner and Banda, which were far more reliable than the electric barbarians.

 

[SoothingDave]

As SoothingDave says, "hand-xeroxed" doesn't really make sense. It certainly doesn't mean hand-written but it could mean that the pages had been placed on the xerox machine one-by-one by hand, rather than fed in automatically as some machines can do. Although, how the recipient would know the copies were done this way is a mystery.

not a teacher

Maybe if the alignment of the individual pages was off, indicating they were placed into the machine (on the glass) by hand.

 

[5jj]

Maybe if the alignment of the individual pages was off, indicating they were placed into the machine (on the glass) by hand.

How dare you come in with common sense when some of us senior citizens are enjoying wallowing in nostalgia!

 

[SoothingDave]

We did have mimeographed (ditto) papers when I was in grade school. The smell of the freshly made copies was something strangely enticing.