penny-a-liner
Preserved but no longer current.
A contributor of local news, accidents, fires, and scandals to a newspaper; a man not regularly "on the paper;" one who is popularly believed to be paid for each contribution at the rate of a penny a line, and whose interest is, therefore, that his articles should be stuffed with fine words and long sentences. This wonderful person, to whom so much is daily attributed, is now generally called a LINER.
Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “penny-a-liner” mean?
A contributor of local news, accidents, fires, and scandals to a newspaper; a man not regularly "on the paper;" one who is popularly believed to be paid for each contribution at the rate of a penny a line, and whose interest is, therefore, that his articles should be stuffed with fine words and long sentences. This wonderful person, to whom so much is daily attributed, is now generally called a LINER.
Is “penny-a-liner” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.