Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A personal journal in which quotable passages, literary excerpts, and comments are written.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A book in which things especially to be remembered or referred to are recorded methodically.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
personal notebook orjournal in whichmemorabilia ,quotations etc werewritten
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a notebook in which you enter memorabilia
Etymologies
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Examples
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bilby commented on the word commonplace book
"Commonplace books did not become common until paper became readily available and literacy fairly widespread, roughly in 16th-century England. With the invention of the printing press and the accumulation of books, the serious reader realized that the sea of knowledge was incommensurable. A commonplace book would allow him to salvage at least a few pearls.
Commonplace books have been willed to heirs, not only as family keepsakes, but as manuals of instruction; when John Bunyan married in 1649, the sum total of his wife’s dowry was two commonplace books."
- Ian Hunter, 'My Commonplace Books', nationalpost.com, 20 August 2008.
September 1, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word commonplace book
Some commonplace books were published. Ben Johnson's Timber (1640), and W.H. Auden's A Certain World (1971) are notable English language examples.
September 23, 2009