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anthology

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ænˈθɒlədʒi/[1]
  • US: /ænˈθɑləd͡ʒi/[1]

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French anthologie (1574) and partly borrowed from New Latin anthologia (“collection of poems”) (recorded by 1536), the source of the French word,[2][3][4][5][6][7] from Ancient Greek ἀνθολογία (anthología, “a gathering of flowers”),[2][7][8][9] from ἀνθολόγος (anthológos, “gathering flowers”),[8][10] from ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”) and λέγω (légō, “to gather”).[8][7][11][12] The earliest sense, a breviary of the Greek Church, is instead from Koine Greek ἀνθολόγιον (anthológion, “gathering of flowers”), which meant a collection of extracts in Byzantine Greek and a hymnal in medieval Greek;[2] the OED compares anthologe (1704) and anthologion (1555).[2] The sense "treatise on flowers" was formed in English from antho- and -logy.[2] Barnhart thinks the English word was taken from the Greek, perhaps under the influence of the French,[13] and Merriam-Webster relates the Greek word for flower to a Sanskrit word for a herb or the soma plant and perhaps to Albanian ënde (“blossom”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A breviary, especially one of the Greek Orthodox Church: 1621, in S. Ward's Life of Faith.[2] The literary sense, a collection of choice epigrams or short poems by several authors, follows in 1624.[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1630s,[7] Barnhart to 1640,[13] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid-17th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word, literally "flower-gathering", was used for a collection of the "flowers" of verse, small choice poems or epigrams by various writers, and Etymonline places this metaphorical sense in Late Greek.[7][14][15] Montaigne used the same image in 1580, saying that he had only gathered other men's flowers and supplied the string that tied them.[15] In English the poetic sense was soon widened: from 1647 to any published collection of writings, later of pictures and other works,[2][3] from 1846 to any group of the best examples of something,[2] and in 1950 to an album of recordings by various artists or from across one artist's work.[2] Johnson (1755) gave the senses "a collection of flowers", "a collection of devotions in the Greek church" and "a collection of poems";[12] the first (1755–1856, first recorded in Johnson) and the church breviary (to 1775) are now obsolete.[2] A botanical sense, a treatise on flowers or the study of their structure, lasted from 1658 to 1911.[2] The verb anthologize is recorded from 1892.[13]

Timeline

  • 1621 – a breviary of the Greek Church (obsolete by 1775).[2]
  • 1624 – a collection of choice short poems by various authors.[2]
  • 1647 – any published collection of writings.[2]
  • 1658 – a treatise on flowers (obsolete by 1911).[2]
  • 1755 – Johnson: a collection of flowers.[12][2]
  • 1846 – a grouping of the best examples of something.[2]
  • 1892 – the verb anthologize.[13]
  • 1950 – a collection of recordings issued as one album or set.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A collection of selected literary pieces, especially poems, by various authors: an anthology of war poetry.[6][5][2]
  2. A collection of selected works in another art, such as songs, recordings or paintings, often issued as one album or set.[6][5][2]
  3. A group of related things that shows the best or most typical of their kind.[2]
  4. (obsolete, 1621–1775) A breviary or book of devotions of the Greek Orthodox Church.[2][12]
  5. (obsolete, 1755–1856) A collection of flowers.[2][12]

Word family

  • anthological
  • anthologically
  • anthologist
  • anthologize

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press