different between hornbook vs battledore

English

Etymology

horn +? book

Noun

hornbook (plural hornbooks)

1. A single page containing the alphabet, covered with a sheet of transparent horn, formerly used for teaching children to read.
   • 1696, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

     Moth: Yes, yes. He teaches boys the hornbook.

   • a. 1828, Samuel Johnson, John Walker, Robert S. Jameson, A Dictionary of the English Language, page 351,

     HORNBOOK, (horn'-book) n. The first book of children, covered with horn to keep it unsoiled.

   • 1913, Katharine Lee Bates, Lilla Weed, Shakespeare: Selective Bibliography and Biographical Notes, page 41

     By way of the hornbook Shakespeare would have learned to read, […]
2. (law) A legal textbook that gives a basic overview of a particular area of law.

Translations

References

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• battledoor

Noun

battledore (plural battledores)

1. A game played with a shuttlecock and rackets (properly battledore and shuttlecock); a forerunner of badminton.
2. The racket used in this game.
3. (obsolete) A child's hornbook for learning the alphabet.
   • 1802, William Hutton, The History of the Roman Wall, preface

     You will also pardon the errors of the Work, for you know I was not bred to letters; but, that the battledore, at an age not exceeding six, was the last book I used at school.

4. (historical) A bat or beetle used in washing clothes.
   • 1563, John Foxe, The Book of Martyrs, ch. 21

     There is a large basin near the fountain, where numbers of women may be seen every day, kneeling at the edge of the water, and beating the clothes with heavy pieces of wood in the shape of battledores.

Derived terms

• know B from a battledore, know a B from a battledore

Translations

Anagrams

• tetralobed