bookstaff
/ˈbʊkˌstæf/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Brother Ormin cautions transcribers to follow his spelling exactly —And tat he looke well that he (And that he look well that he), An bookstaff write tweis (A letter write twice), Eywhere then it upo this book (Wherever then it upon this book) Is written o that wise (Is written on that wise), For he ne may nought elles (For he may not else) On English writen right te word (In English write right the word)."
- "As the “bookstaff” had vanished before the littera, another substance had to be employed for the purpose of writing, and the skins of animals, properly prepared and called bók fell, or book skins, appeared."
- "This is Aleph, says Isaac; the first bookstaff in the grammatic."
- "This place of endearment! How it is clear! How they cast their spells upon, the fronds that thereup float, the bookstaffs branchings!"
- "Here I sit with a pencil and pad / Pouring out my ideas / Making bookstaff images of ideas I've had / Write down the vision and make it plain / So that all who pass by can catch it / Well A B C - 1 2 3 […]"
- "[…] “[Doctor Martin] had undercut the pope, cardinals, and the great bishops, ... he had proved they could not offer so much as a bookstave from holy scripture to prove that their great power and lordship were based on God's command."
Etymology
From Middle English bocstaff (“letter, written character”), from Old English bōcstæf (“letter, written symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōkstab, from Proto-Germanic *bōkstabaz (“beechwood staff; written character”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Boukstäf, Dutch boekstaaf, German Low German Bookstaav, German Buchstabe, Danish bogstav, Swedish bokstav, Norwegian Bokmål bokstav, Norwegian Nynorsk bokstav, Faroese bókstavur, Icelandic bókstafur. Likely a semirevival of the Old English term. By surface analysis, book + staff.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *stebʰ-, bocstaff, bōcstæf, *bōkstab, *bōkstabaz