"The alphabet; especially (in early use) the Roman alphabet as opposed to the Greek; (in later use) an alphabet belonging to an ancient writing system, or an inscription of this", Old English; earliest use found in Byrhtferð of Ramsey (fl. c986–c1016), Benedictine monk and scholar. From post-classical Latin abecedariumabecedary; compare -arium.[abecedarium etymology, abecedarium origin, 英语词源]