chapbook

[chap-book]
noun
1.
a small book or pamphlet of popular tales, ballads, etc., formerly hawked about by chapmen.
2.
a small book or pamphlet, often of poetry.

Origin:
1790–1800; chap (as in chapman) + book

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2014.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
chapbook (ˈtʃæpˌbʊk)
 
n
a book of popular ballads, stories, etc, formerly sold by chapmen or pedlars

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

chapbook
1824, shortened from chap(man) book, so called because chapmen (see cheap) sold such books on the street.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

chapbook

small, inexpensive stitched tract formerly sold by itinerant dealers, or chapmen, in western Europe and in North America. Most chapbooks were 5 12 by 4 14 inches (14 by 11 cm) in size and were made up of four pages (or multiples of four), illustrated with woodcuts. They contained tales of popular heroes, legend and folklore, jests, reports of notorious crimes, ballads, almanacs, nursery rhymes, school lessons, farces, biblical tales, dream lore, and other popular matter. The texts were mostly crude and anonymous, but they formed the major part of secular reading and now serve as a guide to the manners and morals of their times.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences
Printed twelve to sixteen to a sheet, battledores were sold by chapbook vendors for a penny each.
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