bookstaff – English noun declension

English noun forms of bookstaff

Noun: bookstaff
Singularbookstaff
Pluralbookstaves; bookstaffs

Sample Sentences

  • 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 is Aleph, says Isaac; the first bookstaff in the grammatic. [1932, Seumas O'Sullivan, The Dublin magazine:]
  • 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:]
  • 'I can't read bookstaves, but Holiday learned himself,' said Softly. […] 'He learned me a bare five bookstaves, but it was enough to read a whole word.' [2019, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time:]
  • The poetic dialogue between Solomon and Saturn not only calls the rune for R the “best of bookstaves” (bocstafa brego), but it also spells out the Pater Noster, acrostically with runes, […] [2020, D. Vance Smith, Arts of Dying, page 43:]

Nouns inflected like bookstaff

bookstaff,

Etymology

From Middle English bocstaff (“letter, written character”), from Old English bōcstæf (“letter, written symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōkstab, from Proto-Germanic *bōkstabaz (“beechwood staff; written character”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Boukstäf, Dutch boekstaaf, German Low German Bookstaav, German Buchstabe, Danish bogstav, Swedish bokstav, Norwegian Bokmål bokstav, Norwegian Nynorsk bokstav, Faroese bókstavur, Icelandic bókstafur. Likely a semirevival of the Old English term. By surface analysis, book + staff. See: Middle English Nouns 'bocstaff', Dutch Nouns 'boekstaaf', German Nouns 'Buchstabe', Danish Nouns 'bogstav', Swedish Nouns 'bokstav', Norwegian Bokmål Nouns 'bokstav', Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns 'bokstav', Faroese Nouns 'bókstavur', Icelandic Nouns 'bókstafur'.

Verbs referencing "bookstaff"

German Nouns Buchstabe, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns bokstav, Swedish Nouns bokstav, English Nouns runestaff.