HORNBOOK • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Hornbook

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/hˈɔrnbˌʊk/ Listen

Hornbook

noun

A primer that provides instruction in the rudiments or basic skills of a branch of knowledge.

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Etymology of 'Hornbook'

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"Hornbook" Quotes from Famous Books

... to render the circle of maternal duties, and thereby the maternal example, more complete, there are prints of Mary leading her Son to school. I have seen one in which he carries his hornbook in his hand. Such representations, though popular, were condemned by the highest church authorities as nothing less than heretical. The Abbe Mery counts among the artistic errors "which endanger the faith of good Christians," ...

— Legends of the Madonna • Mrs. Jameson

... had been invented. The dame who hobbled along in spectacles, dropping a low curtsey to the "quality," taught the hornbook and the primer to a select few of the progeny of the farmers and artisans, and the young ladies would no more have thought of assisting her labours than the blacksmith's. They only clubbed their pocket money ...

— Love and Life • Charlotte M. Yonge

... is fastened over a framed picture. Thus the children could see the letters and words under the horn, but were not able to deface or tear the paper. It was difficult to get books in those days, and a hornbook ...

— Stories of New Jersey • Frank Richard Stockton

Words linked to "Hornbook" : primer