Weekly Word: Abecedarian

I found abecedarian the other day from Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day. As a noun, it means “a person who is learning the letters of the alphabet” or “a beginner in any field of learning”. As an adjective, it means “of or pertaining to the alphabet”, “arranged in alphabetical order”, or “rudimentary”.

It comes from “Middle English, from Medieval Latin abecedarium, alphabet, from Late Latin abecedarius, alphabetical : from the names of the letters A B C D + -arius, -ary.”

Apparently an abecedarian is also a type of poem and, from Wikipedia, “a 16th century German sect of Anabaptists who affected an absolute disdain for all human knowledge”. Interesting.