tome
[tohm]
- a book, especially a very heavy, large, or learned book.
- a volume forming a part of a larger work.
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Origin of tome
1510–20; < French < Latin tomus < Greek tómos slice, piece, roll of paper, book, akin to témnein to cut
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tomes
Contemporary Examples
To be sure, “the guilt of the West is beyond anything that has been recorded in films and tomes and painting,” he said.
Wole Soyinka's Nobel Nominees: The Malala HeroinesOctober 10, 2013
Historical Examples
Indeed, the Sheikh is right; most of these tomes are good for nothing else.
The Book of KhalidAmeen Rihani
Rises, removes a small screen to reveal a towering pile of tomes.
We're Friends, NowHenry Hasse
"And the client too," said Tomes aloud; but nobody had heard what I had said.
The Memoires of Casanova, CompleteJacques Casanova de Seingalt
The room is pitch-dark always, and it is full of tables and tomes.
These are the spontaneous lenders, who insist that you shall borrow their tomes.
The LibraryAndrew Lang
tome
- a large weighty book
- one of the several volumes of a work
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Word Origin
C16: from French, from Latin tomus section of larger work, from Greek tomos a slice, from temnein to cut; related to Latin tondēre to shear
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for tomes
tome
n.
1510s, from Middle French tome, from Latin tomus "section of a book, tome," from Greek tomos "volume, section of a book," originally "section, piece cut off," from temnein "to cut," from PIE *tom-/*tem- "to cut" (cf. second element in Latin aestimare "to value, appraise," Old Church Slavonic tina "to cleave, split," Middle Irish tamnaim "I cut off," Welsh tam "morsel"). Originally "a single volume of a multi-volume work;" sense of "a large book" is attested from 1570s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper