compendium

[kuhm-pen-dee-uhm]

noun, plural com·pen·di·ums, com·pen·di·a

[kuhm-pen-dee-uh] /kəmˈpɛn di ə/.

a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject; concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.
a summary, epitome, or abridgment.
a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.

Also com·pend

[kom-pend] /ˈkɒm pɛnd/.

Origin of compendium

1575–85; < Latin: gain, saving, shortcut, abridgment, equivalent to com- com- + pend- (stem of pendere to cause to hang down, weigh) + -ium -ium

Synonyms for compendium

1. survey, digest, conspectus.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for compendia

sketch, essence, abstract, manual, brief, summary, syllabus, survey, conspectus, overview, handbook, epitome, guide, digest, pandect

Examples from the Web for compendia

Contemporary Examples of compendia

How to Be Inappropriateby Daniel Nester A TMI compendia of inappropriate and humorous nonfiction.
This Week's Hot Reads
The Daily Beast
November 2, 2009

Historical Examples of compendia

From the 1780s on, cups with brass syringes began to appear in compendia of instruments.
Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology
Audrey Davis
There is a large number of small treatises and compendia of Florentine history of the guide-book description.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5
Various

British Dictionary definitions for compendia

compendium

noun plural -diums or -dia (-dɪə)

British a book containing a collection of useful hints
British a selection, esp of different games or other objects in one container
a concise but comprehensive summary of a larger work

Word Origin for compendium

C16: from Latin: a saving, literally: something weighed, from pendere to weigh

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for compendia

compendium

1580s, from Latin compendium "a shortening, saving," literally "that which is weighed together," from compendere "to weigh together," from com- "together" (see com-) + pendere "to weigh" (see pendant). Borrowed earlier as compendi (mid-15c.).