abecedarian

Noun (1)

abecedarian (plural abecedarians)

1. Someone who is learning the alphabet.
2. An elementary student, a novice; one in the early steps of learning.
   • A man may alwaies continue his studie, but not schooling. O fond-foolish for an old man to be ever an Abcedarian [translating abecedaire].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 28, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 404
3. (archaic) Someone engaged in teaching the alphabet; an elementary teacher; one that teaches the methods and principles of learning.
4. (rhetoric) A work which uses words or lines in alphabetical order.
   • This formal organization is most likely to create obscurity in such elaborate and artificial forms as: palindromes (words, phrases, or verses which read the same backward or forward), abecedarians (poems in which the initial letters of lines or stanzas are arranged to[…])[…].1996, Mediaevalia, volume 19, Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies of the State University of New York at Binghamton, page 133
   • Abecedarian verses are chanted stichoi/stichera verses in which the first letter of each verse follows an alphabetical order.[…]The Amomos, an abecedarian, is the longest psalm in the Psalter[…].2007, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music Collection of the National Library, →ISBN, page 590

Adjective

abecedarian (comparative more abecedarian, superlative most abecedarian)

1. (archaic) Pertaining to someone learning the alphabet or basic studies; elementary; rudimentary.
2. Pertaining to the alphabet, or several alphabets.
   • The professor [...] had several other translations or feats of antiquarian deciphering to his credit. Indeed, I was extremely fortunate to find him in at the museum, for he planned to fly within the week to Peru where yet another task awaited his abecedarian talents.1971, Brian Lumley, Rising with Surtsey
3. Arranged in an alphabetical manner.
4. Relating to or resembling an abecedarius.

Noun (2) capitalized: Abecedarian

US/ˌeɪ.biˌsiˈdæɹ.i.ən/

Abecedarian (plural Abecedarians)

1. (historical) A member of a 16th-century Anabaptist sect, follower of the Zwickau prophets (and specially of Thomas Storch), who believed that any kind of knowledge (even basic reading and writing) would keep one from obtaining salvation.
   • Behind the stable doors, where competitors frenziedly shine tack and polish hooves, Donna McNulty busies herself with her horse, Abecedarian.1990 August 27, Cynthia B. Hanson, “HORSE PLAY”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 14 Jan 2025
   • Heckman has been analyzing data from two famous early-childhood intervention programs, the Abecedarian Project of the ’70s and the Perry Preschool project of the ’60s. Both have furnished ample evidence that, if you enroll very young children from poor families in programs that give both them and...2013 May 13, Judith Shulevitz, “The Lethality of Loneliness”, in The New Republic, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2015