VOCABULARY: WORDS ABOUT BOOKS

florilegium
MEANING:
noun: A compilation of excerpts; anthology.

NOTES:
If you think of compiling an anthology as arranging flowers in a bouquet, you wouldn't be far off: the word comes to us from Greek anthos (flower). Florilegium is the Latin equivalent, from flor (flower). Both words have also been applied to a collection of flowers or a collection of writing about flowers.

USAGE:
“I was intrigued to find a florilegium of Romantic poetry tucked under a pot of hide glue and was about to settle in to read when I heard a roar of outrage.”

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https://wordsmith.org/words/florilegium.html

bouquiniste or bouquinist
MEANING:
noun: A dealer in old and used books.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French bouquiniste, from bouquin (a colloquial word for a book, little book, or old book). Earliest documented use: 1840.

USAGE:
“Heywood Hill's boxes of books, with their blue-and-white address labels, still offer year-round bounty to customers all over the world, but competition from Amazon, an online bookseller, has forced the fashionable bouquiniste to reinvent itself. Under its new owner, Mitford's nephew the Duke of Devonshire, it has quietly become a leading purveyor of bespoke libraries.”

To read the complete article, see:
https://wordsmith.org/words/bouquiniste.html

bibliotaph or bibliotaphe
MEANING:
noun: One who hoards books.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek biblio- (book) + taphos (tomb), which also gave us cenotaph Earliest documented use: 1823.

USAGE:
“A more pertinent example of the morbid bibliotaph is recorded by Blades; this was the late Sir Thomas Phillipps, of Middle Hill, who acquired *bibliographical treasures simply to bury them*. He bought books by the library, crammed his mansion with them, and *never even saw what he had bought*.”

To read the complete article, see:
https://wordsmith.org/words/bibliotaph.html

bibliolater
MEANING:
noun:
1. One with extreme devotion to books.

USAGE:
“Well trained in the best American scholarly library, and a true bibliolater, [Danile Willard Fiske] was equally well equipped to establish Cornell's Library.”

To read the complete article, see:
https://wordsmith.org/words/bibliolater.html

pandect
MEANING:
noun:
1. A complete body of the laws of a country, organization, etc.
2. A comprehensive treatise on a subject.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin pandectes (encyclopedia), from Greek pandektes (all-receiving), from pan- (all) + dektes (receiver), from dekhesthai (to receive).

NOTES:
Originally, the Pandects (also known as the Digest), was a 50-volume compendium of Roman laws, compiled under the emperor Justinian during CE 530-533.

USAGE:
“Families were told that students at the near 100-percent African-American elementary school would not be allowed to ‘wear outlandish hairstyles in school,' as mandated by the improved Saint Rose manual on student pandect.”

To read the complete article, see:
https://wordsmith.org/words/pandect.html

biblioklept
noun: A person who steals books.

"Towards the Persons who frequent your Library maintain a courteous Demeanour, but the utmost Vigilance. For as it is your duty to guard well the Books which are the Riches of your Treasury, so you cannot afford to relax those Restrictions which may save you from Despoilment and the most grievous Loss. The Biblioklept or Thief of Books is your eternal Foe.

To read the complete article, see:
http://wordsmith.org/words/biblioklept.html

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