pocketbookn.adj.
/ˈpɒkɪtbʊk/, U.S. /ˈpɑkətˌbʊk/ A. n.
1.
a. Chiefly in form pocket book. A small book, adapted so as to be conveniently carried in a person's pocket. In later use chiefly North American: a paperback or other small or inexpensive edition of a book.Use of the word to denote a printed book does not seem to have been common before the 20th cent. The North American use dates from 1939, when ten titles were published in the U.S. in inexpensive paperback editions by Pocket Books, Inc., a company founded by Robert F. de Graff (1895–1981), subsequently an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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society > communication > book > kind of book > size of book > [noun] > small book
libel1382
livreta1450
pamphlet1496
pocketbook1617
bookling1782
bookie1787
tomelet1839
volumette1857
booklet1859
society > communication > book > kind of book > book of specific form or colour > [noun] > with specific type of back or cover
blue book1633
green book1798
paperback1843
paper cover1843
yellowback1859
flat-back1888
greenback1893
paperbound1933
softback1951
hardback1953
hardcover1953
pocketbook1953
softcover1953
trade paperback1960
1617 Janua Linguarum Advt. To render the volume as portable..and if not as a manuall or pocket-booke, yet a pectorall or bosome-booke, to be carried twixt ierkin and doublet.
1648 A. Rowley (title) The scholler's companion, or a little library, containing all the interpretations of the Hebrew and Greek Bible,..brought into a pocket book.
1658 W. Johnson tr. F. Würtz Surgeons Guid ii. Introd. 45 A small Enchiridium and pocket book, easily to be carried about one.
1678 Aubrey in J. Ray Corr. (1848) 129 A little pocket-book, which may be of use where the larger tables cannot be had.
1705 Pastry-cook's Vade-mecum Pref. sig. A2v In this Pocket-Book, all sorts of People..may find sure Remedies for their Diseases.
1783 S. Johnson Let. 23 Apr. (1994) IV. 132 I am..returning thanks for the elegant pocket book..which I shall look and think on with emotions of tenderness.
1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 318/2 La Rochefoucauld ranks among the scanty number of pocket-books to be read and re-read with ever new admiration, instruction, and delight.
1939 Zanesville (Ohio) Sunday Times-Signal 17 Sept. i. 10/1 (advt.) Just arrived! New titles in the famous Pocket Books... Drop in today and see why Pocket books are being welcomed so enthusiastically by thousands of people like yourself.
1953 Amer. Scholar 23 10 The Galaxy serial ‘Gravy Planet’ (recently republished in a pocket book as The Space Merchants).
1962 A. Buchwald How Much is that in Dollars? 167 Always try to get a large advance on pocket-books.
2007 D. Graham in R. Sutherland & C. Thomson Pocketbk. Radiographic Positioning (ed. 3) Foreword p. ix A pocketbook has a number of advantages over a large textbook..: a pocketbook usually contains succinct information which is readily available to the reader.
b. British. A book for memoranda, notes, etc., intended to be carried in a pocket; a notebook.
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society > communication > record > written record > album or commonplace book > [noun]
book of commonplaces1562
adversaria1571
commonplace book1572
stem-book1592
commonplace1607
album1612
commonplacera1631
topic folio1644
place-booka1659
pocketbook1660
blank book1713
scrap-book1825
guard book1839
press book1897
society > communication > writing > writing materials > material to write on > paper > [noun] > pad of paper > notebook
bookOE
notebook1565
tablebook1582
manuscript book1593
notary1651
pocketbook1660
tablets1773
jotter1882
pencil tablet1882
ring book1891
carnet1897
telephone pad1900
notepad1922
copy1943
1660 C. Hoole New Discov. Old Art of teaching Schoole iii. i. 139 Let them cull out the most significant words..and write them in a Pocket-book.
1687 T. Brown Cal. Reform'd in Duke of Buckingham et al. Misc. Wks. (1704) 222 Children don't use to come into the World with their Ink-horns and Pocket-books about them.
1739 H. Baker & J. Miller tr. Molière School for Wives i. vi, in Molière Wks. III. 137 Here's some new waggish Story to minute down in my Pocket-Book.
1797 T. Holcroft tr. F. L. Stolberg Trav. II. lvii. 325 A lady..makes a memorandum..in her pocket-book.
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xlii. 416 Mr. Squeers took out his pocket-book and made a note of it.
1885 Dict. National Biogr. at Brokesby, Francis From about this time onwards he used to write in his pocket-books short Latin memoranda on the incidents of his daily life.
1932 W. T. Whitley Gilbert Stuart iv. 46 All his distinguished or fashionable sitters were out of town, as can be seen by the entries in his pocket book for 1784.
1996 Independent 19 Nov. ii. 7/2 A total of 124 warnings were handed out; 124 separate sets of names and addresses were duly logged in pocket-books.
2.
a. A pocket-sized folding case for holding banknotes, papers, etc.; a wallet. Now chiefly U.S.In early use not always distinguishable from sense A. 1b.
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society > trade and finance > money > place for keeping money > wallet > [noun]
pocketbook1670
reader1718
dummy1785
wallet1843
insider1846
porte-monnaie1850
skin1856
bill-holder1890
bill-book1895
billfold1895
poke1908
billfolder1909
1670 S. Wilson Lassels's Voy. Italy (new ed.) 399 A pistol in a pocket booke here, is as bad as the others, which being charged and let off, would presently read your doome.
1681 Protestant (Domestick) Intelligence 22 Mar. A Pocket-Book bound in Velom, ty'd about with a piece of Red Tape, was lost on Wednesday night last..with Receipts for several Sums of Money.
1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 153 A Merchant's Pocket-Book, or Letter-Case.
1735 Lives Most Remarkable Criminals II. 38 A Lady whose Husband..had sent for her Over-Draughts for her Assistance to the amount of between fifteen Hundred and two Thousand Pounds, lost the Pocket-book in which they were contained.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Knuckles, pickpockets who attend the avenues to public places, to steal pocket books, watches, &c., a superior kind of pickpockets.
1816 Niles' Reg. 10 216/1 Two methodist preachers were lately robbed of their pocket-books, containing very considerable sums in bank notes.
1862 O. L. Jackson in Colonel's Diary (1922) v. 67 I..thought it best to take my pocket-book out of my pocket and put it under my head.
1936 C. Sandburg People, Yes 111 So dumb he spent his last dollar buying a pocketbook to put it in.
1963 Chicago Tribune 22 Nov. b1 The wines..he describes as ‘excellent ones and not too hard on the pocketbook (generally under $3 a bottle)’.
1994 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 23 Jan. c3/5 His wife and child are living in Phoenix now. Bill carries pictures of them in his pocketbook.
b. A handbag or purse for banknotes or coins, esp. one belonging to a woman; (also) a woman's handbag for carrying everyday personal items. Now chiefly U.S.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > bag > [noun] > woman's bag
ridicule1799
indispensable1800
reticule1801
pocketbook1830
handbag1873
purse bag1881
chain-bag1902
peggy bag1904
Dorothy bag1907
peggy purse1911
pochette1912
dolly-bag1926
purse1940
bucket bag1956
1830 C. M. Sedgwick Clarence II. viii. 143 She stowed away the separate rolls of bills in her pocket-book.
1907 St. Nicholas Sept. 1007/2 In her pretty pocket-book..she had found a crisp one-dollar bill.
1963 S. Plath Bell Jar i. 5 All the girls had pocket-book covers made out of the same material as their dresses, so each time they changed their clothes they had a matching pocket-book.
1992 M. Leyner Et Tu, Babe (1993) v. 112 I dump out the contents of her pocketbook: loaded jade-handled pistol, Quaaludes,..a packet of pharmaceutical-grade morphine.
1999 New Yorker 29 Nov. 44/2 Couples stood around quietly, the women with their pocketbooks slung to the front.
c. figurative. Chiefly North American. A person's financial resources; funds.
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society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun]
coffer1377
pursec1384
possibilityc1385
moneyc1390
financec1475
abilityc1503
purse stringc1530
moyen1547
means1560
financy1600
pocket1633
fonds1669
wherewith1674
apoinctee1682
funds1700
ways and means1738
money stock1743
pecuniary1748
pecuniar1793
wherewithal1809
ante1843
pocketbook1897
1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. No. 104. 223/1 At 50c. Our price poultice for tired..pocket books.
1904 N.Y. Evening Post 10 Sept. 6 Nearly every class of apartment hotel, satisfying nearly every sized pocket-book, can now be found in Manhattan.
1924 C. A. Beard Amer. Govt. 258 The laws go deep into the pocketbooks of citizens.
1946 Fortune Aug. 113/1 Beer consumption, tied to the workingman's pocketbook, had leveled off.
2019 Holland (Mich.) Sentinel 14 Dec. c1 Keep reducing the price until the house sells... Only do this with a powerful need and a healthy pocketbook.
3. U.S. slang (esp. regional (southern)) (euphemistic). The female external genitals; the vagina.
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the world > life > the body > sex organs > female sex organs > [noun]
cuntc1230
quivera1382
chosec1386
privy chosea1387
quoniamc1405
naturec1470
shell1497
box1541
water gate1541
mouth1568
quiver case1568
water gap1586
cunnya1593
medlar1597
mark1598
buggle-boo1600
malkin1602
lap1607
skin coat1611
quim1613
nest1614
watermilla1626
bum1655
merkin1656
twat1656
notch1659
commodity1660
modicum1660
crinkum-crankum1670
honeypot1673
honour1688
muff1699
pussy1699
puss1707
fud1771
jock1790
cock?1833
fanny?1835
vaginac1890
rug1893
money-maker1896
Berkeley1899
Berkeley Hunt1899
twitchet1899
mingea1903
snatch1904
beaver1927
coozie1934
Sir Berkeley1937
pocketbook1942
pranny1949
zatch1950
cooch1955
bearded clam1962
noonie1966
chuff1967
coozea1968
carpet1981
pum-pum1983
front bum1985
coochie1986
punani1987
front bottom1991
va-jay-jay2000
1942 Z. N. Hurston in Amer. Mercury July 92 ‘Trying to snatch my pocketbook, eh?’ she blazed.
1969 M. Angelou I know why Caged Bird Sings xi. 71 Momma had drilled into my head: ‘Keep your legs closed, and don't let nobody see your pocketbook.’
2002 News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 24 Feb. d2 She remembers such nicknames as ‘Lucy’, ‘pocketbook’ and ‘cootie’ for the vagina.
B. adj. (attributive).
Chiefly North American. Relating to considerations of personal finance, esp. as a factor in politics (see sense A. 2b).
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1894 H. H. Furness Address 4 Our ideal Provost must know the exact location in every rich man's body of the pocket-book nerve.]
1953 Holland (Mich.) Evening Sentinel 25 Nov. 10/7 Three Democratic senators predicted today that ‘pocketbook issues’ will play an overriding role in the 1954 congressional election campaign.
1960 Life 4 July 32/1 So where are any pocketbook issues for the Democrats?
1992 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) May 72/2 He outlined some financial initiatives he was considering to improve the ‘pocketbook morale’ of the company's print side.
2002 Seattle Times (Nexis) 3 Nov. b1 For all the talk of principle, though, Norling said that if his side wins it's likely to be a strict pocketbook vote.
Compounds
C1. Objective.
pocketbook maker n.
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?1775 T. Tomlins List Livery London 206 Carter Wm. Newgate str. pocket book maker.
1845 Times 16 Oct. (Suppl.) 9/5 (advt.) Wanted, a respectable youth, as an apprentice... Direct to H., Mr. Halliwell's, pocket-book-maker, 252, Tottenham-court-road.
1992 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald Jrnl. 22 Apr. He was employed with Julius Resnick Co., a pocket book maker, and 1000 Madison Co. before retiring.
C2.
pocketbook dropper n. now historical and rare a confidence trickster who makes money by dropping a wallet (see pocketbook dropping n.).
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1845 N.Y. Herald 7 May 2/2 The writer in the American Review..enumerates the potential agencies to which..Mr. Polk owes his election [as]..‘pocket-book droppers’, ‘brothel-owners and bullies’ [etc.].
1874 Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) 19 May One of those noble souls whose generous dispositions make them the prey of the pocket-book dropper and the confidence man.
1908 Washington Post 24 May The confidence men, pocketbook droppers, and so on [are] either Polacks or Italians.
2011 Wired (San Francisco) (Electronic ed.) Feb. Five foot nine, of stout frame and polite address, this specialist in crime was a pocketbook dropper.
pocketbook dropping n. now historical and rare the confidence trick of dropping a wallet with the hope of making money from a gullible person by substituting a wallet of counterfeit money, or being paid a ‘reward’.
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1852 Hunt's Merchants' Mag. Aug. 215 Their principles are ancient; their whole system is but pocketbook dropping, or thimble-rigging on an enlarged scale, with fresh apparatus.
1889 Salem (Ohio) Daily News 21 Mar. A system of ‘sharp practice’ which is only one degree less rascally than pocket-book dropping and patent-safe swindling.
2003 J. W. Frick Theatre, Culture & Temperance Reform 19th-Cent. Amer. ii. 53 Stabbings, muggings, dognapping, purse snatching, watch-stuffing, pickpocketing and ‘pocketbook dropping’ were common occurrences on city streets.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1617