pamphlet
Plural: pamphlets
Noun
- A small, thin book or booklet with a paper cover.
- a small book usually having a paper cover
- a brief treatise on a subject of interest; published in the form of a booklet
- A small, brief printed work, consisting either of a folded sheet of paper, or several sheets bound together into a booklet with only a paper cover, formerly containing literary compositions, newsletters, and newspapers, but now chiefly informational matter.
- Such a work containing political material or discussing matters of controversy.
- A brief handwritten work.
Verb
- To distribute pamphlets (to someone or some place).
- To write about (someone or something) in a pamphlet; to issue (some material) in the form of a pamphlet.
- To distribute pamphlets.
- To write or produce pamphlets.
Examples
- The Scrabble rulebook was more like a PAMPHLET than a hefty tome.
Origin / Etymology
The noun is derived from Late Middle English pamflet, pamphilet (“short written text; small book; tract”) [and other forms], from Middle French Pamphilet (compare Late Latin (Anglo-Latin) pamfletus, panfletus, paunflettus (“short written text”), Old French Panfilès), a popular shorthand for the 12th-century Latin love poem Pamphilus, seu de amore (Pamphilus, or On Love): the widely circulated pamphlets then gave this name to the whole phenomenon. Pamphilet is derived from Latin Pamphilus, the name of a protagonist of the poem + Middle French -et (suffix forming diminutive masculine nouns); while Pamphilus is from Ancient Greek Πάμφιλος (Pámphilos, literally “beloved by all”), from παν- (pan-, prefix meaning ‘all; every’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect; to shepherd”)) + φῐ́λος (phĭ́los, “beloved, dear”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰil- (“decent; friendly; good; harmonious”)).
For the Middle French and Old French use of the suffix -et to form shorthands for the titles of works, compare Middle French Avionet (“the fables of Avianus”) from Avianus; Middle French Catonet, Old French Chatonnet, Chatonez (“the Distichs of Cato”) from Caton (they were formerly believed to be by Cato); and Old French Esopet, Isopet (“Aesop’s Fables”) from Ésope (Aesop).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Scrabble Score: 17
pamphlet: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordpamphlet: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
pamphlet: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary