Dictionary

book word en · NOUN

Etymology

From book + word.

Meanings

1. A word that is encountered in writing but not usually in speech, which people may therefore not know how to pronounce (correctly).
   • Book words—words that are found most often in writing but are rarely spoken—change as well but in a somewhat different way. When the communal memory of a word's pronunciation has been lost, or when speakers who have never heard a book word pronounced attempt it, then spelling will play a key role in determining the new pronunciation. 2014, Dale F. Coye, Pronouncing Shakespeare's Words: A Guide from A to Zounds, →ISBN, page 7:
   • The second, being a ‘book word,’ has quite an artificial pronunciation. 1871, Alexander John Ellis, On Early English Pronunciation, with Especial Reference to Shakspere ...:
2. A word that is borrowed into a vernacular from a closely related literary language, thus being etymologically related to native vocabulary, but not showing regular sound changes.
   • French loyal and légal are both from Latin lēgālis. While the former was inherited, the latter is a book word.

Forms

Relateds

learned borrowing