A B C

sb. 4–; also written as a word: 3–6 abece; 5 apece, apecy, apsie; 6 apcie, absee, absie, absey, abeesee; 5–7 abce; 6–7 abcie; 7 abcee, a-bee-cee. (These names were most frequent in sense 3.) The first three letters of the alphabet; hence

  1.  The alphabet itself. [So in OFr. A B C, abece.]

1297.  R. Glouc., 266. He was more þan ten ȝer old, ar he couþe ys abece.

1356.  Wyclif, Last Age, 28. Euery lettre in þe abece may be souned wiþ opyn inouþ save .m. lettre one.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden, VI. 259 (Rolls Ser.). He founded as meny abbayes as beþ lettres in þe A B C [in alphabeto].

c. 1394.  Piers Pl. Crede, 9. A and all myn A B C After have I lerned.

c. 1440.  Prompt. Parv., A-pece apecy [1499 abce] alphabetum, abecedarium.

a. 1520.  Myrroure of Our Ladye, 139. There is xxii letters in the Abce of hebrew.

1573.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Abecedarirom, -rii An Absee.

1611.  Florio, Abecè the A B C or Criscrosse-row.

1653.  Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xiv. Master Tubal Holophernes, who taught him his A B C, so well that he could say it by heart backwards.

1781.  Cowper, Convers., 14. Sorting and puzzling with a deal of glee Those seeds of science called his A B C.

a. 1845.  Hood, Huggins & Duggins, 5. I’d carve her name on every tree, But I don’t know my A B C.

  † 2.  An alphabetical acrostic; a poem of which the successive stanzas, or lines, begin with the letters of the alphabet in order. Obs.

c. 1382.  Wyclif, Jeremiah, Prologue, 10. In Jewere onli and Beniamyn he profeciede, and of his cite the fallingus with fourfold abece he weilede.

c. 1430.  The A B C of Aristotle (1868). Whoso wilneþ to be wiys, & worschip desiriþ, Lerne he oo lettir, & looke on anoþir Of þe a b c of Aristotill: argue not aȝen þat.

1597.  Speght, Edn. of Chaucer (title), Chaucers A B C, called La Prière de Nostre Dame.

1855.  Bell’s Chaucer, VI. 125. The A B C is a prayer to the Blessed Virgin somewhat in the manner of an acrostic. It consists of twenty-three stanzas, each of which begins with one of the letters of the alphabet, arranged in their order. [It is a transl. of the French hymn in Pilgr. of the Lyfe of Man.]

  3.  A spelling-book, or primer, teaching the alphabet and first elements of reading (Obs.); hence fig. the first principles, most elementary part, or simplest rudiments (of any subject).

c. 1400.  Poem, in Reliq. Antiq., I. 63. Quan a chyld to scole xal set be, A bok hym is browt, Naylyd on a brede of tre, That men callyt an abece.

1571.  Wills & Inv. North. Count. (Surtees Soc.), II. 362. xiiij doss’ pap^r latten abeesees iij^s vj^d—iiij doss’ abeesees in p’chment ij^s.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Sermons, 22/1. When he gaue vs his worde, hee did not giue vs an A. b. c. onely, but hee taught vs with open mouth.

1583.  Golding, Calvin on Deuteron., Serm. xix. 110. 27 a. Wee abide still at our Absie, and wot not what rule or doctrine meaneth.

a. 1593.  H. Smith, Sermons, 252. This is the Abce, and Primmer, and Grammar, the first lesson and last lesson of a Christian.

1637.  Decree of Star Chamb., § 10 (Arber’s Areop., 14). Any Bibles, Testaments … Primers, Abcees, or other booke or books.

1641.  Milton, Animadv. (1851), 204. To tutor their unsoundnesse with the Abcie of a Liturgy.

1879.  Farrar, St. Paul, II. 152, note. The notion may be that ritualism is only the elementary teaching, the ABC of religion.

1921.  Sarah Comstock, The Daughter of Helen Kent, viii. 159. But I don’t know the ABCs of technique. Anybody can think up ideas for dances, I suppose.

  4.  Attrib., as in A B C-book or abcee-book, absey-book, primer, horn-book; an introductory book to any subject, often in catechism or dialogue form. So A B C-scholar, A B C-learner, A B C-teacher; ‘the A B C (= Alphabetical) Railway Guide.’

1595.  Shaks., John, I. i. 196. I begin ‘I shall beseech you’; that is question now, And then comes answer like an Absey booke: ‘O sir,’ sayes answer, ‘at your best command.’

1611.  Florio, Abecedario, a teacher or learner of A B C; also a horne-booke, or A-bee-cee-booke.

c. 1440.  Prompt. Parv., Apece lerner, or he þat lernythe þe abece. Alphabeticus, abecedarius.

1580–95.  Munday, John à Kent, etc., 60. Which a meere abce scholler in the arte Can doo it with the least facilitie.

1632.  Sherwood, An Abcee-learner or teacher, Abecedaire (Fr.).

  A B C, or abee-cee is even found as a vb. ‘to say the alphabet.’

1611.  Florio, Abecedáre, to alphabet or abee-cee.

a. 1845.  Hood, My Son & Heir, 12. A coppersmith I can’t endure—Nor petty usher A B C-ing.

  A B C process (in making artificial manure).

1879.  E. G. Bartholomew, in Cassell’s Tech. Educ., I. 115. The A B C is a patented process, and obtains its name from the three initial letters of the three principal ingredients … alum, blood, and clay.