festschrift

American

[fest-shrift] / ˈfɛstˌʃrɪft /

noun

plural

festschriften, festschrifts

(often initial capital letter) a volume of articles, essays, etc., contributed by many authors in honor of a colleague, usually published on the occasion of retirement, an important anniversary, or the like.

festschrift British

/ ˈfɛstˌʃrɪft /

noun

a collection of essays or learned papers contributed by a number of people to honour an eminent scholar, esp a colleague

"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

Etymology

Origin of festschrift

1900–05; < German, equivalent to Fest feast, festival + Schrift writing

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.

Silver Bullets: The 25th Anniversary of Crippen & Landru Publishers multitasks as an anthology, a festschrift and a bibliographical history.

From Washington Post • Oct. 2, 2019

He had a potential new NBC series in the works, a Netflix special in the offing and a new biography that was far more festschrift than exposé.

From Salon • Nov. 20, 2014

The earliest picture in the festschrift, dating from 1986, when Pinder was only 20, shows an unemployed man with a pickaxe, scavenging for scrap metal on industrial wasteland at Stockton.

From The Guardian • Jun. 4, 2012

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023