bookstaff

plural bookstaves · plural bookstaffs · alternative bookstave

1. archaicarchaic or puristicA letter, a letter of the alphabet, a written character.

   This is Aleph, says Isaac; the first bookstaff in the grammatic.

   1932, Seumas O'Sullivan, The Dublin magazine

   5 more examples

   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).

   1870, The American Educational Monthly - Volume 7, page 449

   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.

   1884, The Builder, volume 46

   This place of endearment! How it is clear! How they cast their spells upon, the fronds that thereup float, the bookstaffs branchings!

   1976, Poétique, page 217

   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 […]

   2011, Terrence J. White, My Joy in the Morning

   […] “[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.

   2018, Christopher Ocker, Luther, Conflict, and Christendom