bibliographer
AmericanEtymology
Origin of bibliographer
1650–60; < Greek bibliográph ( os ) book-writer ( see biblio-, -graph) + -er 1
Explanation
If you’ve decided to read everything Shakespeare ever wrote, or are looking for the best books on American basketball for a research paper, you’ll appreciate that some bibliographer somewhere has probably made a list suitable for each of those two projects. A professional bibliographer makes lists of published writings, including when and where they were published and sometimes giving notes on each one. The list, called a bibliography, might be all of a certain author's works, or all the most important works on a certain topic. The Greek roots of both words are biblion, "book," and graphos, "something drawn or written." Whenever you make a list of all the resources you consulted for an essay, you’re making a bibliography and acting as an amateur bibliographer yourself.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two of this volume’s other essays closely consider the value of association copies — that is, copies with a noteworthy provenance — and the principles that guide a bibliographer.
From Washington Post • Nov. 10, 2022
Senchyne came across the manuscript in 2015, when he was looking through the papers of Henry Harrisse, a notable 19th-century lawyer and bibliographer who taught at UNC in the mid-1850s.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 6, 2017
And then the relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and Griswold, who became his bibliographer after he died, and kept Poe a minor figure in literature for over a hundred years.
From The Guardian • Jun. 14, 2013
Orwell bibliographer Peter Davison says that in Decline of the English Murder he neither approves nor disapproves of the paper.
From BBC • Jul. 11, 2011
The word βιβλιογραφία was used in post-classical Greek for the writing of books, and as late as 1761, in Fenning’s English Dictionary, a bibliographer is defined as “one who writes or copies books.”
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
