This week's theme: words about books. hornbook (HORN-book) noun
A primer. [From horn + book. In earlier times, a hornbook was a book containing the alphabet or other material for children. Though it would be stretching the definition of book by the present standard -- it had a wooden paddle with a handle that held a paper with learning material protected by the transparent layer of a cow's horn.] See pictures of hornbooks at http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/books.html -Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org) "Christopher Buckley's novel 'Thank You for Smoking' is a manic send-up of your average tobacco lobbyist's life. It's also a hornbook of seamless flack-speak." Terry Tang; Smoking Out the Falsehoods of Tobacco's Brash Barons; The Seattle Times; Jun 7, 1996. Sponsored by: Pimsleur Language courses, proven fast and effective. Save 10% with coupon AWADSP06 at checkout. http://awad.pimsleurdirect.com Always find the right word with the Visual Thesaurus. Wordsmith readers save 10%. Try it free! http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?code=4p7&ad=aw ............................................................................ The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. -George Baker (1877-1965) Everything you wanted to know about etymology but were afraid to ask. Join us in an online chat with Anatoly Liberman, author of "Word Origins", Oct 29, 2006, 7 pm Pacific (GMT -8) at http://wordsmith.org/chat Remove, change address, gift subs: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/hornbook.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/hornbook.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/hornbook.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
