Alphabet

As most people know, the word ALPHABET is derived from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, ALPHA and BETA.

When it was first introduced into English, the purists, or nitpickers as we like to call them, insisted that the word was used purely to describe the Greek version.

The English alphabet should be referred to as the ABC, of the abece, apece, or absee. Unfortunately for crossword compilers, these versions never survived.

In the 16th century and perhaps earlier, children who were learning their letters and numbers carried a `hornbook’, suspended from the belt.

It consisted of a thin wooden board on which the alphabet, the numbers and the Lord’s Prayer were printed.

The board itself was held in a frame with a thin window made from flattened cattle horn.