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.”

   “There are also several places where the copyist wrote in the letter but the initialer failed to complete his task (e.g., 18v20, 19r6).”

   “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, compositors who set the type in place, cutters who made woodblock prints for illustrations and initials, and pressman who worked the press itself.”

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."”

   “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.”

   “Everything worked okay in the initialer except the one-dimensional and much too obvious prejudice of the personnel manager where Miss Carroll will work.”

   “. . . . despite a trite story, the initialer had to its credit a breezy pacing from director John English and excellent camera work.”

   “At least in the initialer last week, the quiet cousin was completely irrelevant.”

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.”

   “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 inspector's notes, were not mentioned in the citation.”

   “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.”