hornbook
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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hornbook (ˈhɔːnˌbʊk) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a page bearing a religious text or the alphabet, held in a frame with a thin window of flattened cattle horn over it |
| 2. | any elementary primer |
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| a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. |
| a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal. |
hornbook
form of children's primer common in both England and America from the late 16th to the late 18th century. A sheet containing the letters of the alphabet was mounted on a wooden frame and protected with thin, transparent plates of horn. The frame was shaped like a table-tennis paddle, had a handle, and was usually hung at the child's belt. The earliest sheets were of vellum; later they were of paper. They contained first a large cross, from which the hornbook was called the Christ's Cross row, or crisscross row. The alphabet in large and small letters followed. The vowels then formed a line, and their combinations with the consonants were given in a tabular form. The usual blessing-"In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost, Amen"-followed, then the Lord's Prayer, the whole concluding with the Roman numerals
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