bookholder

English

Etymology

From book +‎ holder.

Noun

bookholder (plural bookholders)

1. A support for a book, holding it open for reading or copying.
2. (obsolete) A prompter at a theatre.
   • 1623 (first performance), John Fletcher, William Rowley, “The Maid in the Mill”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     they are out of their parts, sure: it may be 'tis the book-holder's fault

Alternative forms

• book-holder

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “bookholder”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)