# bookstaff

## Anglais

### Étymologie

    Du moyen anglais bocstaff ; du vieil anglais bōcstæf. Équivalent à book + staff. Apparenté au frison saterlandais Boukstäf, au bas allemand Bookstaav, à l’allemand Buchstabe, au danois bogstav, au suédois bokstav, au norvégien bokstav, au féroïen bókstavur et à l’islandais bókstafur. Probablement une semi-renaissance du terme provenant du vieil anglais.

### Nom commun

bookstaff \ˈbʊkˌstæf\ ou \ˈbʊk.stɪf\ ou \ˈbʊk.stɑːf\ ou \ˈbʊk.stəf\

* (Archaïsme) ou (Rare) Une lettre (de l’alphabet).
   * 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). — (The American Educational Monthly - Volume 7, Schermerhorn, Bancroft & Company, page 449, 1870)
   * 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. — (Seumas O'Sullivan, The Dublin magazine, page 21, 1932)
   * ‘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.’ — (James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time, Canongate Books, 2019)

**Variantes**

* bookstave

**Synonymes**

* letter (plus courant)

**Vocabulaire apparenté par le sens**

* runestaff, runestave
