inkhorn
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈɪŋkˌhɔː(ɹ)n/
Noun

inkhorn (plural inkhorns)

  1. (archaic) A small portable container, often made of horn, used to carry ink.
    • circa 1598 William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act III, Scene 5,
      Go, good partner, go, get you to Francis Seacole; bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the gaol: we are now to examination these men.
    • 1847, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Boston: Ticknor, Part III, p. 44,
      […] from his pocket the notary drew his papers and inkhorn,
      Wrote with a steady hand the date and the age of the parties,
  2. (used attributively, pejorative, of vocabulary) Pedantic, obscurely scholarly.
    • circa 1591 William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act III, Part 1,
      And ere that we will suffer such a prince,
      So kind a father of the commonweal,
      To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate,
      We and our wives and children all will fight
      And have our bodies slaughtered by thy foes.
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