Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
A letter, a letter of the alphabet, a written character.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
Qualifier: archaic or puristic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
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.
