Talk:pocketbook
I'm told that Canadians usually say purse and Americans pocketbook. But peopel may use them interchangeably. I don't know what they use in commonwealth countries. JillianE 21:49, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
Kept. See archived discussion of February 2008. 07:00, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
A woman's purse[edit]
how was this meaning derived from its etymology? --Backinstadiums (talk) 16:39, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
The sense of a small book, e.g. paperback[edit]
To me this is pocket book and not pocketbook; the words are pronounced (stressed) differently, just as paperback and the phrase "paper back" would be. No doubt we can cite this sense in both forms but the spaced form, as the standard and commoner one, should probably be the main entry for this sense. Equinox ◑ 18:54, 15 July 2021 (UTC)
"A woman's purse"[edit]
I wound up coming to Wiktionary because I had a spontaneous thought about whether either the terms "purse" or "pocketbook" were gendered. Despite initially thinking probably neither originated in gendered terms, to my surprise, the first Wiktionary definition is "[a] woman's purse" - no source given.
"Pocketbook" originated around 1610, meaning "originally a small book meant to be carried in one's pocket" (Etymonline). It meant a "woman's purse" from 1816 on. Currently, Dictionary.com defines "pocketbook" as "handbag (def. 1)", which it in turn defines as "a bag or box of leather, fabric, plastic, or the like, held in the hand or carried by means of a handle or strap, commonly used for holding money, personal grooming items, small purchases, etc."
American Heritage Dictionary defines "pocketbook" as "1. A purse; a handbag. 2. A pocket-sized folder or case used to hold money and papers; a billfold. ...." It defines "purse" as "1. A usually closable bag used for carrying keys, a wallet, and other personal items, especially by women; a handbag." and "handbag" as "1. a purse. 2. A piece of small hand luggage." Merriam-Webster is similar but lacks any reference to a gendered usage (i.e. AHD ~ "especially by women").
Does Wiktionary know something every reputable source doesn't? Or can we change the primary definition to "purse or handbag"? I suppose it would be reasonable to note that pocketbooks traditionally have meant purses or handbags especially carried by women, but I am not sure why that is needed.
At the moment, Wiktionary appears to indicate that a purse or handbag carried by anyone other than a woman ... is not a pocketbook. I'm pretty sure that's wrong. Note the Wiktionary definition of the synonymous "purse": "A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)".
Sheflinm (talk) 16:46, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
EDIT: Since I just went through and added the etymology info, I'm going to change the first definition to make it clearyl synonymous to "purse" and "handbag".