The word paraphe, which is also spelled parafe, came up last night at the French conversation group – we were looking for how to say initial (letter) in French and found this word, along with initiale.
The word also exists in English – paraph. Definitions include:
- a flourish made after or below a signature, originally to prevent forgery
- a flourish after a signature, originally to prevent forgery
- a flourish or other embellishment made after a signature, either as idiosyncrasy or to protect against forgery
[Source]
It comes from via French from the Medieval Latin paraphus, a variant of paragraphus (paragraph).
