book loren.
/ˈbʊk lɔː/, U.S. /ˈbʊk ˌlɔr/ Book learning (in early use) esp. religious book learning; knowledge gained from books.In Old English also in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > scholarly knowledge, erudition > [noun] > book-learning, letters
craftOE
book loreOE
lettersa1250
letter1340
lettrurec1400
literaturec1450
reading?1548
book learning1553
book skill1553
book knowledge1613
bookcrafta1637
scholarship1644
clerkship1648
letter-learning1668
bookhood1772
clerk-learning1865
literacy1880
OE Wulfstan Institutes of Polity (Junius) 48 He sceal boclarum hlystan swyðe georne and Godes beboda geornlice healdan.
OE Ælfric Let. to Wulfsige (Corpus Cambr.) in B. Fehr Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics (1914) 15 Blind bið se lareow, gif he þa boclare ne cann.
a1200 (?OE) MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 155 (MED) Oðre lorðeawes..cunnen holie boc-lore and þermide godes folc lereð.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Trin. Cambr.) l. 13884 Mon vnlered of boke lore [Vesp. boken lare; Fairf. boke or lare].
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. at Buik-lare A man, who has never been taught to read, says, ‘I gat nae buik-lare’.
1819 W. Scott Legend of Montrose ii, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. III. 175 My legs and arms stood me in more stead than either my gentle kin or my book-lear.
1863 A. Gilchrist Life W. Blake I. 38 Education—as to book-lore neglected.
1892 F. B. Gummere Germanic Origins xvi. 481 He assumes oral tradition, not book-lore, as source of the borrowing.
1963 Scot. Hist. Rev. 42 158 She has some very illuminating comments on the high esteem for learning and book-lore which is to be found in many of the austere monastic communities of Palestine or Syria.
2005 Jrnl. Soc. Archit. Historians 64 324/2 Villalpando's influence in Poland appeared in Catholic book lore and sacred architecture soon after the treatise arrived in the country.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.OE