bibliophile
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- bibliophilic adjective
- bibliophilism noun
- bibliophilistic adjective
- bibliophily noun
Etymology
Origin of bibliophile
Explanation
You can call a book lover a bibliophile. If you find it impossible to leave a book store without buying at least one book, you might be a bibliophile. A bibliophile usually has a huge collection of books and loves nothing more than browsing in a used book shop or a library. A love of books or a deep knowledge about them makes a person a bibliophile. The earliest use of the word bibliophile was in 1820s France, and it came from the Greek prefix biblio, or "book," and the word philos, or "friend." If you consider books to be your true friends, you are definitely a bibliophile.
Vocabulary lists containing bibliophile
All You Need is Love: Amor and Phil
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ASVAB Word Knowledge
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Book Words for Book Worms
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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.
Best known for his diaries, the tailor's son was also a bibliophile who bequeathed his large library to the University of Cambridge's Magdalene College.
From BBC • Jul. 22, 2024
On May 25, 1926, the New York Public Library announced that it had acquired the celebrated Afro-Latino bibliophile Arturo Schomburg’s collection of more than 4,000 books, manuscripts and other artifacts.
From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2024
He was a Christian Zionist and bibliophile, who by all accounts knew the land of Israel better than many of the Jews who lived there.
From Salon • Oct. 28, 2023
Through the late 1940s and mid-50s, this world-famous poet shared a suite of rooms with the witty, wheelchair-bound bibliophile John Hayward.
From Washington Post • Sep. 28, 2022
When it arrived, Robert Hooker, an intelligent, but by no means wealthy, bibliophile, made a request to see it; to hold within his mortal hands this magnificent relic of the two great Elizabethans.
From The Unpublishable Memoirs by Rosenbach, A. S. W.
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.
