inkhorn
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: /ˈɪŋkˌhɔː(ɹ)n/
Forms: form: inkhorns
Etymology: From Middle English ynkhorn, inkehorn (“small portable vessel, originally made of horn, used to hold ink”), equivalent to ink + horn. Displaced Old English blæchorn, which had the same literal meaning but with the native term for "ink."
Senses: examples: text: Goe good partner, goe get you to Francis Seacole, bid him bring his pen and inkehorne to the Gaole: we are now to examine thoſe men.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 113, column 2:
text: […]and one man among them was clothed with linnen, with a writers inkehorne by his side, and they went in and stood beside the brasen altar.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 9:2:
text: Men in helmets have divided that, with swords; men in wigs, with quill and inkhorn, to divide it: and even more hateful these latter, if more peaceably; for the wig-method is at once irresistibler and baser.
ref: 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter V, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book III (The Parliament of Paris), page 85:
text: […] from his pocket the notary drew his papers and inkhorn,
Wrote with a steady hand the date and the age of the parties,
ref: 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, page 44:
text: “All right,” said Haley, his face beaming with delight; and pulling out an old inkhorn, he proceeded to fill out a bill of sale, which, in a few moments, he handed to the young man.
ref: 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter XIV, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 219:
text: When a man of the theatre stirs his inkhorn he is frequently tempted to write a play about the theatre.
ref: 1934 October 21, Brooks Atkinson, “Grounding a Mortal Coil”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: A small portable container, often made of horn, used to carry ink.
examples: text: And ere that we will ſuffer ſuch a Prince,
So kinde a Father of the Common-weale,
To be diſgraced by an Inke-horne Mate,
Wee and our Wiues and Children all will fight
And haue our bodyes ſlaughtred by thy foes.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 106, column 2:
text: The tale retained its bookish and even inkhorn appeal, since established short-story forms continued to be read, and new ones written.
ref: 2018, Jan M. Ziolkowski, The Juggler of Notre Dame and the Medievalizing of Modernity, volume 4, →ISBN, page 144:
glosses: Something or someone pedantic, obscurely scholarly.
raw_tags: of vocabulary
Derived terms: word: inkhornish
word: inkhornism
word: inkhornist
word: inkhornize
alt: see also gallipot word (gallipot)
word: inkhorn term
alt: see also gallipot word (gallipot)
word: inkhorn word