Blogging Translator

Word of the day: abecedary

Encountered: Words Without Borders newsletter, discussing a book by Bernardo Atxaga entitled ‘A Surprising Tale in the Form of an Alphabet’ (translated from Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa.

Word in context: “Bernardo Atxaga’s ’s abecedary of war starts with a malevolent flower and ends with the ultimate solution”

Definitions:

• Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913):

Abecedary

(n.)
A primer; the first principle or rudiment of anything.

(a.)
Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary.

• Hutchinson’s Dictionary of Difficult Words:

Abecedary (n.) book arranged in alphabetical order; elementary text-book. abecedarian, n. member of 16th-century German Anabaptist sect who refused to learn to read. a. alphabetically arranged.

• online casinoBabylon free online dictionary (user-generated content):

Abecedary
(n.) study book that starts at the beginning of a subject, the abc’s of a subject

• Wikipedia:

Abecedarium
An abecedarium (or abecedary) is an inscription consisting of the letters of the alphabet, almost always listed in order. Typically, abecedaria (or abecedaries) are practice exercises.

• Collins English Dictionary, 6th edition (2003)

Abecedarian

(n.) 1. A person who is learning the alphabet or the rudiments of a subject.

(a.) 2. alphabetically arranged.

History: from Late Latin abecedarius, from the letters a, b, c, d.