The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tironian \Ti*ro"ni*an\, a. [L. Tironianus, fr. Tiro, the learned freedman and amanuensis of Cicero.] Of or pertaining to Tiro, or a system of shorthand said to have been introduced by him into ancient Rome.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
of or pertaining to Marcus Tullius Tiro, Cicero's scribe and namesake, 1828, especially in reference to the Tironian Notes (Latin notæ Tironianæ), a system of shorthand said to have been invented by him (see ampersand).\n\nAlthough involving long training and considerable strain on the memory, this system seems to have practically answered all the purposes of modern stenography. It was still in familiar use as late as the ninth century.
[Century Dictionary]
Usage examples of "tironian".
These friars are adept in that art of swift writing by character, known as Tironian notes, which is employed at Rome for making memoranda of the Holy Father's every utterance, and even for recording the entire proceedings of many-peopled conferences.
The four friars, busily flicking away at their Tironian squiggles, did not then or since lose a single word that drops from the Indian's lips.