chap-bookn.
/ˈtʃapbʊk/, U.S. /ˈtʃæpˌbʊk/ A modern name applied by book-collectors and others to specimens of the popular literature which was formerly circulated by itinerant dealers or chapmen, consisting chiefly of small pamphlets of popular tales, ballads, tracts, etc. [Not in Todd 1818.]
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > kind of book > books as sold > [noun] > book sold by itinerant dealers
chap-book1824
stall-literature1834
stationery literature1851
chap1883
subscription book1990
1824 T. F. Dibdin Libr. Compan. 238 It is a chap-book, printed in rather a neat black letter.
1832 in N. Webster Dict. Eng. Lang.
1856 C. M. Yonge Cameos xxxvi, in Monthly Packet May 330 A hero of the popular chap-books of old times.
1882 J. Ashton Chap-bks. 18th Cent. in Athenæum 2 Sept. 302/1 A great mass of chap-books, such as ‘Jack the Giant Killer’, ‘Long Tom’, ‘Mother Shipton’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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n.1824