inkhorn

From Middle English ynkhorn, inkehorn (“small portable vessel, originally made of horn, used to hold ink”), equivalent to ink +‎ horn.

inkhorn (plural inkhorns)

1. (archaic) A small portable container, often made of horn, used to carry ink.
   • c. 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, derogatory, of vocabulary) Pedantic, obscurely scholarly.
   • c. 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.

• inkhornish
• inkhornism
• inkhornize
• inkhorn term / inkhorn word (see also gallipot words (gallipot))

inkhorn

1. Alternative form of ynkhorn