philatelist
Americannoun
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a person who collects stamps as a hobby or investment.
By following the points below, new philatelists will be able to start their stamp collection and enjoy the benefits of collecting.
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an expert in the study of postage and revenue stamps, stamped envelopes and postmarks, postcards, and other items related to postal history.
At the symposium, research on the history of American postal operations was discussed by philatelists and the interested public.
Etymology
Origin of philatelist
First recorded in 1860–65; philatel(y) ( def. ) + -ist ( def. )
Explanation
Don't call a coin collector a philatelist. That word is reserved for people who collect stamps. If you're going to become a philatelist, start saving those old envelopes. The phil- at the beginning of philatelist gives you a hint as to its meaning: it means "love" — a Francophile is a person who loves France. The Greek ateleia meant "exemption from payment," an exemption that was marked by a stamp. So a philatelist is literally a person who "loves stamps." The world of the philatelist is a strange and tiny one. It makes one wonder why someone starts collecting stamps in the first place. Maybe it's the pretty little pictures.
Vocabulary lists containing philatelist
All You Need is Love: Amor and Phil
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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2014 Vocabulary Video Contest (M-Z)
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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.
Philatelist Franklin D. Roosevelt admired them and played a role in designing the one in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., near his estate in Hyde Park.
From Washington Post • Aug. 27, 2020
That is the price now set on the stamp by Philatelist Hind's widow, Mrs. Pascal Costa Scala, who last spring married a monument salesman who called to sell a tombstone for her husband's grave.
From Time Magazine Archive
Title of Philatelist Spellman's picturesque display: "America the Beautiful."
From Time Magazine Archive
Next day Philatelist Roosevelt had a new fellow member through the election of Philatelist Herbert Clark Hoover.
From Time Magazine Archive
This was inserted in the Halifax Philatelist in error; so far as we know this stamp does not exist.
From Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery by Howes, Clifton Armstrong
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.
