also ABCDary, abcedary, abscedarie. [ad. med.L. abecedāri-us alphabetical, also sb. masc. a learner of the alphabet; f. the names of the letters ABCD. See also next word.]
A. adj.
1. Of or according to the alphabet; alphabetic; marked with the alphabet; arranged in alphabetical order.
1580. Fleming, in Baret’s Alvearie, N nnn 2. Such Prouerbes as we have collected and reduced into an Abecedarie Index or Table.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep. (1650), 76. Two Abecedary circles, or rings with letters described round about them.
1803. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., I. 431. The French are very fond of abcedary instruction.
2. Engaged with or needing to learn the alphabet; illiterate.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., 20. Thanking God with that abscedarie Priest in Lincolnshire, that he neuer knewe what that Romish popish Latine meant.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. lv. 170. There is a kind of Abecedarie ignorance preceding science: another doctorall following science.
B. sb.
An abecedary scholar or teacher. (Cf. Florio, 1611, Abecedário, a teacher or learner of A B C.)
1607. Sir T. Bodeley, Lett. to Ld. Bacon, in Bacon’s Wks. (1730), 578. Being now become again as it were abecedarii by the frequent spelling of particulars, to come to the notice of the true generals.
1623. Minsheu, An Abecedarie, or teacher of petties, vide Abecedario. Abecedario, a teacher to spell, reade, and the vse of the a b c, &c.
