writing arm

6.7

A small flat board attached to a chair to write on

noun

: brazo de escritura

He found it uncomfortable to write on the small writing arm attached to the chair.

Examples

The lecture hall chairs each had a writing arm for students to take notes.
The classroom was equipped with desks instead of chairs with writing arms.
The writing arm of the chair is very comfortable.
I love the writing arms on this old chair.
The lecture hall chairs each had a writing arm for students to take notes.
He found it uncomfortable to write on the small writing arm attached to the chair.
The classroom was equipped with desks instead of chairs with writing arms.

How Big

writing desk

3 2.3

lapboard

5.8

writing arm

6.7

armrest

14 1.8

Surface Forms

writing arm singular

writing arms plural

Morphology

writing + arm

The noun phrase is compositionally built: 'writing' modifies 'arm' to indicate an arm designed or broadened for writing, so the meaning is directly derivable from the parts. This is a common, literal modifier + head pattern found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows 'writing' and 'arm' would readily understand it.

Etymology

Writing arm comes from chairs that had one wide arm with a flat top where students could put paper and a pen to write. That's why the term means a small 'desk' attached to a chair.