lettermark

plural lettermarks

1. businessA text-only logo consisting of the initials of a brand name or business.
2. USgovernmentThe designation of funds from the federal budget for a particular project created in response to a letter from a member of congress to an official in the executive branch who is responsible for authorizing appropriations.

   Part I documents the rise of lettermarking and explains how lettermarks damage American democracy.

   2015 April, James Dawson, “Curbing Lettermarks”, in Yale Journal on Regulation, volume 32, number 1

present singular third person lettermarks · participle present lettermarking · participle past lettermarked · past lettermarked

1. USgovernmentTo obtain a lettermark on funds from the federal budget by sending a letter (from a member of Congress) to the appropriate official in the executive branch who is responsible for authorizing appropriations.

   Appropriations bills sometimes include funds for projects not requested by the executive branch. This allow members of Congress to 'lettermark' these funds by unofficially contacting executive officials directly and requesting that the funds are directed to their state or district.

   2022, Sarra Jenkins, Emma Kilheeney McSherry, US Politics Annual Update 2022

2. To mark (something) with one or more letters of the alphabet to indicate its brand or category.

   When the ship arrived at its destination, a local craftsman could assemble a vessel, orienting on the lettermarking.

   1993, Acta Hyperborea - Volumes 5-6, page 382

   2 more examples

   We send young men "to College," hale and hearty, and the College sends them back duly stamped, — " letter-marked," i.e. invalids.

   1871 July, Rev. C. E. Weiser, “The Fourfold Culture of Man”, in Mercersburg Quarterly Review, volume 18, page 347

   My Perigordin patois very pleasantly calls these pretenders to learning, lettre-ferits, as a man should say, lettermarked—men on whom letters have been stamped by the blow of a mallet.

   1877, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, William Carew Hazlitt, Essays, tr. by C. Cotton