At 23:32 17/02/99 +0000, Gerald England wrote:
>quoted message---
>
>Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 01:06:02 -0000
>From: "Jim Bennett" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "brish" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re absolutely nothing
>Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
>
>APP absolutely nothing
>
>can anyone tell me the derivation of "chapbook"?
>
>endquote----
>
>As far as I am aware the word arose in the 19th century
>when the first pamphlets were published and made
>available to poor masses
>who after education became compulsory in the Victorian era
>found themselves able to read.
>
The word does indeed stem from the early nineteenth-century, but it derives
from the far older word, "chapman" (from Old English, ceapman), which
denoted the seller of, among other things, chapbooks (collections of
ballads, tracts, penny-dreadfuls, etc.) Interestingly, "chap", a
contraction of chapman, came to mean the purchaser of the chapman's wares,
rather than the hawker himself. I believe there is also a word
"chap-money", which signified the change the "chap" (buyer) received from
the "chapman" on purchasing, say, a "chapbook".
Alex Davis
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