a. and sb.; also 7 ABCDarian; 8 abcedarian. [f. med.L. abecedāri-us (see ABECEDARY) + -AN.]

1

  A.  adj.

2

  1.  Of or pertaining to the alphabet; marked with the alphabet; arranged in alphabetical order, as Abecedarian psalms, like the 119th.

3

1665.  Glanville, Scepsis Scientifica, xxiv. § 2. 150. The letter which is most distant in the Abecedarian circle from that which the needle turns to.

4

1668.  Bp. Wilkins, Real Character, 45. The first and more simple ingredients required to the framing of Discourse or Language are stiled Elements Abecedarian.

5

1751.  Chambers, Cycl. We meet with Abcedarian psalms, lamentations, prayers, and the like, chiefly among Hebrew writers.

6

1864.  G. Macvicar, in Reader, 16 July, 78. The earlier chemists, who, under the charm of the moment, adopted an abecedarian method which … can be made to yield nothing more than the most ambiguous syllables.

7

1881.  Athenæum, No. 2801. 10/1. Abecedarian requirements have rendered the present volume the least interesting.

8

  2.  Occupied in learning the alphabet, or pertaining to one so occupied.

9

1651.  Noah Biggs, New Disp., § 170. 130. Those ABCdarian Nuntii.

10

1685.  Cotton, Montaigne, I. 606. There is an abecedarian ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it.

11

1819.  Southey, Letters (1856), III. 148. When she heard my abecedarian interpretation of your abominableness.

12

  B.  sb. [The adj. used elliptically.]

13

  1.  One occupied in learning the alphabet. In U.S. the regular school term.

14

1603.  Florio, Montaigne, II. xxviii. 394. O fond-foolish for an old man to be ever an Abecedarian.

15

1851.  S. Judd, Margaret (1871), II. i. 168. The goal of every breathless whip-fearing abcd-arian’s valorous strife.

16

1880.  New Engl. Journal of Educ., 20 May, 325/1 (Time-table). 9 to 9.15 Opening Exercise. 9.15 to 9.25 Abecedarians, [etc.]…. Abecedarians should have at least four recitations per day.

17

  2.  One engaged in teaching the alphabet and merest rudiments of instruction.

18

1691.  Wood, Athenæ Oxon. (1817), iii. 213 (Thos. Farnabie). His distresses made him stoop so low, as to be an abcdarian, and several were taught their horn-books by him.

19

1714.  Walker, Sufferings of Clergy, II. 405. He had a wife and six children, whom he made a shift to maintain, by submitting to be an ABC-darian at Williton in this county.

20

1803.  Hay, Wexford Insurrection, 65. He therefore commenced abecedarian.

21

1836.  Hor. Smith, Tin Trumpet, 1. ABCdarian seems to have been an ancient term for a pedagogue.

22