Abecedarian and Back to School

Hello,

It’s late August now and something is in the air – the back to school vibes. Dreaded by students and teachers alike and a busy time for them, as well as for parents buying supplies. Some schools (for teens) have already started back in my area but it will be another couple of weeks for the university students in my house. But it’s definitely in the air so I’ll share an educational word this week – abecedarian.

Plenty of apples for teacher

Abecedarian is defined in Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary as being “one who teaches or learns the alphabet” so this word works for both students and their tutors.

Abecedarian is in use from at least the 1660s but is predated by an abecedary – an alphabet table used in teaching from the mid 1400s. That came from abecedarium in Medieval Latin (an ABC book) which takes its name from the first four letters in the Latin alphabet. Old French also had abecedé (alphabet) in the 1200s.

Of course the adecedary would have been used in teaching students how to read, but by as early as the 1300s it was used in a more general sense of being the basics of any subject. You might have the ABCs of computer coding today, or the ABCs of vine cultivation. All English learners start with learning abc, hence the association. It has also been used for the American Broadcasting Company since 1944 and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation since 1931.

For those of you returning to studies or teaching this autumn, good luck with it, bring an apple for teacher, and remember you’re an abecedarian.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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