Copybook

Copybook, an adjective meaning as is expected or in accordance with set rules, dates from the mid-1600s and derives from school copybooks where corrections of wrong answers were recorded so that pupils would be made fully aware of the correct answers to various topics, questions etc. The correct answers to such questions etc were carefully noted in school copybooks and by the mid-1600s the word became to be used as an adjective in phrases like, a copybook military exercise or a copybook musical performance etc. The word copybook itself, as in a school copybook, dates from the early 1500s.