different between handbook vs reader

English

Etymology

1814, from hand +? book, or perhaps a reintroduction of Middle English hond book, hondebooke, from Old English handb?c (“handbook”), or a calque of German Handbuch (“handbook”). Compare Dutch handboek, Danish håndbog, Swedish handbok.

Noun

handbook (plural handbooks)

1. A topically organized book of reference on a certain field of knowledge, regardless of size.
2. (US, gambling) A place where illicit bets can be placed.
   • 1916, U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on interstate commerce, Prevention of Transmission of Race-gambling Bets (page 23)

     The extent of the business done in this line is not understood by those who have not looked into it. In New York there are 50 pool rooms and 500 handbooks; in East St. Louis, 20 handbooks; in Chicago, 5 pool rooms and 200 handbooks; […]

   • 1961, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Gambling and Organized Crime: Hearings

     Persons subject to his rule can be found operating, in addition to the wire service, wire service relays, handbooks, gambling houses, prostitution establishments, coin-operated device companies, bars, restaurants, night clubs, motels, […]

Coordinate terms

• manual

Translations

Anagrams

• book hand

English

Etymology

From Middle English reder, redar, redere, redare, from Old English r?dere, r?dere (“a reader; scholar; diviner”), from Proto-West Germanic *r?d?ri, equivalent to read +? -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Räider (“advisor”), Dutch rader (“advisor”), German Rater (“advisor”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??id?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??i?d?/
• Rhymes: -i?d?(?)

Noun

reader (plural readers)

1. A person who reads.

   an early reader, a talented reader

2. A person who reads a publication.

   10,000 weekly readers

3. A person who recites literary works, usually to an audience.
4. A proofreader.

   Synonyms: proofreader, printer's reader

6. A person employed by a publisher to read works submitted for publication and determine their merits.

   Synonyms: publisher's reader, first reader

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter VIII, p. 123, [1]

     They were dog-eared by the hands of many a publisher's-reader and postman.

7. (chiefly Britain) A university lecturer ranking below a professor.
8. Any device that reads something.

   a card reader, a microfilm reader

9. A book of exercises to accompany a textbook.
10. An elementary textbook for those learning to read, especially for foreign languages.
11. A literary anthology.
12. A lay or minor cleric who reads lessons in a church service.
13. (advertising) A newspaper advertisement designed to look like a news article rather than a commercial solicitation.

    Synonym: reading notice

14. (in the plural) Reading glasses.
15. (slang, gambling, in the plural) Marked playing cards used by cheats.
    • 1961, United States. Congress. Senate. Government Operations, Gambling and Organized Crime, Parts 1, 2, 3. 87-1 (page 286)

      LUMINOUS READERS—Marked cards that can be read only through tinted glasses.

    • 1991, John Bowyer Bell, Barton Whaley, Cheating and Deception (page 185)

      Of the 150,000,000 decks of cards sold each year in America, Scarne estimates that 1 percent get marked at some point. Yet, as he discovered in his 1972 gambling survey, only 2 percent of average players have any idea of how to detect these "readers."

Derived terms

• early reader
• e-reader

Translations

Anagrams

• dearer, re-read, reared, reread