Word of the Day abecedarian

Word of the Day

• abecedarian
• 
• \ay-bee-see-DAIR-ee-un\

• DEFINITION

adjective

1

a : of or relating to the alphabetb : alphabetically arranged

2

: rudimentary

• EXAMPLES

The children recited an abecedarian chant, beginning with "A is for apple" and ending with "Z is for zebra."

"'The Future of Terror' and 'Terror of the Future' are abecedarianpoems, which is to say that they follow a particular scheme through the alphabet." — From a poetry review by David Orr inThe New York Times, February 17, 2008

• DID YOU KNOW?

The history of "abecedarian" is as simple as ABC—literally. The term's Late Latin ancestor, "abecedarius" (which meant "of the alphabet"), was created as a combination of the letters A, B, C, and D, plus the adjective suffix "-arius"; you can hear the echo of that origin in the pronunciation of the English term (think "ABC-darian"). In its oldest documented English uses in the early 1600s, "abecedarian" was a noun meaning "one learning the rudiments of something"; it specifically referred to someone who was learning the alphabet. The adjective began appearing in English texts around 1665.

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/#B1k66Ix6Tf1UI2QO.99