alphabeticsn.
/ˌalfəˈbɛtɪks/, U.S. /ˌælfəˈbɛdɪks/ The representation of spoken sounds by letters or symbols.Chiefly with reference to Alexander Melville Bell (see quots. 18652 and 1867, and cf. visible speech n. (a) at visible adj. 1d).
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society > communication > writing > study or science of written symbols > [noun]
alphabetics1865
graphemics1951
graphology1961
1865 A. J. Ellis in Reader No. 136. 155/2 Alphabetics as a science.
1865 Museum 1 Dec. 357/2 Mr Bell mentioned Mr John Alexander Ellis as an authority on the excellence of this system, who, having himself also invented a system of Alphabetics, conceded the palm of superiority to Mr Bell's, though a rival system.
1867 A. M. Bell (title) Visible speech: the science of universal alphabetics.
1891 Phonetic Jrnl. 8 Aug. 498/2 Many self-styled literary people are profoundly ignorant, dogmatic, prejudiced and sensorious [sic], on alphabetics.
1919 Volta Rev. Nov. 701/2 They owe an immense debt of gratitude to Prof. A. Melville Bell and to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell for their great labors in the field of phonics and alphabetics.
2002 J. Lepore A is for American (2003) vii. 165 Unlike Müller, Lepsius, and most other scholars of universal alphabetics, Alexander Melville Bell was no philologist.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1865