hornbook

English

Detail of The Allegory of Grammar by Gregor Reisch: Nicostrata, legendary inventor of the letters of the alphabet, which she holds up in a hornbook (1) with one hand, here personifies Grammar and works the key to a tower of learning for a child who she invites to enter.

Etymology

From horn +‎ book.

Noun

hornbook (plural hornbooks)

1. (historical) A single page containing the alphabet, covered with a sheet of transparent horn, formerly used for teaching children to read.

   Synonym: battledore

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 136:

     Yes, yes, he teaches boyes the Horne-Booke: […]

   • [1755 April 15, Samuel Johnson, “HO′RNBOOK”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: […], volume I (A–K), London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton;  […], →OCLC, column 1:

     HO′RNBOOK. n.ʃ. [horn and book] The firſt book of children, covered vvith horn to keep it unſoiled.]

   • 1913, Katharine Lee Bates, Lilla Weed, Shakespeare: Selective Bibliography and Biographical Notes, page 41:

     By way of the hornbook Shakespeare would have learned to read, […]

   • 1999, Nigel Wheale, Writing and Society: Literacy, Print, and Politics in Britain, 1590-1660, page 43:

     Infants learned their letters from a hornbook, a square of wood shaped like a table-tennis bat on which were pasted the alphabet, syllables and the Lord's Prayer […]

   • 2002, Nila Banton Smith, American Reading Instruction, page 14:

     The hornbook is the first piece of instructional material specifically mentioned in American records.

   • 2008, Ben Yagoda, When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It, Crown, →ISBN, page 30:

     Not only is it difficult to extract just the right doozy of an adjective out of the hornbook, but the maneuver can be performed at most twice in the course of an article or chapter.

2. (law) A legal textbook that provides a basic overview of a particular area of law.

Translations

hornbook

• Dutch: abecedarium (nl)
• Swedish: abc-bok (sv) c

Further reading

• hornbook on Wikipedia.Wikipedia