commonplace book

American  

noun

1. a book in which noteworthy quotations, comments, etc., are written.

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commonplace book British  

noun

1. a notebook in which quotations, poems, remarks, etc, that catch the owner's attention are entered

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Etymology

Origin of commonplace book

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

commonplace book

As it happens, I’ve kept my own commonplace book since I was in college.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 15, 2022

Besides keeping my own commonplace book, I enjoy reading similar compilations by others.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 15, 2022

As for Kindle readers who have been marking passages in their e-books for years: You can see all your highlights at https://read.amazon.com/notebook and decide which lines you’d like to add to your commonplace book.

From New York Times ● Feb. 10, 2021

And he took copious notes, organized by topic, in his commonplace book — the database of the era.

From Nature ● May 1, 2018

Samuel Adams’s master’s thesis was “delivered in flawless Latin,” Alexander Hamilton copied Demosthenes into his commonplace book, and Thomas Jefferson modeled his oratory on the prose of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith