- inkhorn (n.)
- late 14c., "small portable vessel (originally made of horn) for holding ink," from ink (n.) + horn (n.). Used attributively from 1540s ("Soche are your Ynkehorne termes," John Bale) as an adjective for things (especially vocabulary) supposed to be beloved by scribblers, pedants, and bookworms. An Old English word for the thing was blæchorn.