abecedarian
\ ey-bee-see-DAIR-ee-uhn \ , noun;
1.a person who is learning the letters of the alphabet.
2.a beginner in any field of learning.
adjective:
1.of or pertaining to the alphabet.
2.arranged in alphabetical order.
3.rudimentary; elementary; primary.
Quotes:
Instead, Hirsch breathes new life into the abecedarian by pointing out its relationship to prayer and how poets as varied as Gertrude Stein and Harryette Mullen have stretched — and been stretched by — the form.
-- Elizabeth Lund, "'A Poet's Glossary,' by Edward Hirsch," The Washington Post , 2014
Henry Barnard, commenting on the work of the abecedarian , in the early nineteenth century, says: "If a child be bright, the time which passes during this lesson is the only part of the day when he does not think. Not a single faculty of the mind is occupied except that of imitating sounds; and even the number of these imitations amounts to only twenty-six."
-- Edited by Paul Monroe, "A Cyclopedia of Education" , 1911
Origin:
Abecedarian entered English in the early 1600s. It can be traced to the Latin abecedarium meaning "alphabet" or "primer."
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