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A.Word.A.Day--hornbook

This week's theme: words about books.

hornbook (HORN-book) noun

A primer.

[From horn + book. In earlier times, a hornbook was a book containing the alphabet or other material for children. Though it would be stretching the definition of book by the present standard -- it had a wooden paddle with a handle that held a paper with learning material protected by the transparent layer of a cow's horn.]

"Christopher Buckley's novel 'Thank You for Smoking' is a manic send-up of your average tobacco lobbyist's life. It's also a hornbook of seamless flack-speak."
Terry Tang; Smoking Out the Falsehoods of Tobacco's Brash Barons; The Seattle Times; Jun 7, 1996.

X-Bonus