inkhorn

noun
/ˈɪŋkˌhɔː(ɹ)n/

Etymology

From Middle English ynkhorn, inkehorn (“small portable vessel, originally made of horn, used to hold ink”), equivalent to ink + horn. Displaced Old English blæchorn, which had the same literal meaning but with the native term for "ink."

  1. inherited from ynkhorn

Definitions

  1. A small portable container, often made of horn, used to carry ink.

    • Goe good partner, goe get you to Francis Seacole, bid him bring his pen and inkehorne to the Gaole: we are now to examine thoſe men.
    • […]and one man among them was clothed with linnen, with a writers inkehorne by his side, and they went in and stood beside the brasen altar.
    • Men in helmets have divided that, with swords; men in wigs, with quill and inkhorn, to divide it: and even more hateful these latter, if more peaceably; for the wig-method is at once irresistibler and baser.
  2. Something or someone pedantic, obscurely scholarly.

    • And ere that we will ſuffer ſuch a Prince, So kinde a Father of the Common-weale, To be diſgraced by an Inke-horne Mate, Wee and our Wiues and Children all will fight And haue our bodyes ſlaughtred by thy foes.
    • The tale retained its bookish and even inkhorn appeal, since established short-story forms continued to be read, and new ones written.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for inkhorn. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA