antiquary

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Latin antīquārius (“student of the past”),^[2][3][4] from antīquus (“old, ancient”) and -ārius.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun also meant a copyist or scribe, from the 4th century according to the OED,^[2] a sense Etymonline assigns to Medieval Latin.^[5] The adjective is borrowed from Medieval Latin antīquārius (“ancient”), an adjectival use of the same Latin word.^[3][2] Etymonline traces the Latin word for old to Proto-Indo-European *anti- (“before”) and Proto-Indo-European *okw- (“to see”).^[5] Compare French antiquaire, recorded as a noun from 1568, Spanish anticuario and Italian antiquario.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who studies or is interested in the past and its remains: 1566, in J. Martiall's Replie to Calfhills Blasphemous Answer.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1563,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1555–65,^[4] and Etymonline to the 1580s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

By 1601, in Holland's translation of Pliny, it could also name an official keeper or recorder of a nation's or institution's antiquities,^[2] a sense the Shorter Oxford puts first but calls long obsolete except in historical use.^[6] Brief uses at the edges of the word did not last: an ornamental grotesque figure in 1573, apparently through association with antic; the written record of the past in 1592; and antiquity itself in 1655.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a man devoted to antiquity and a collector of ancient things, and quoted Pope's pale antiquaries poring over an inscription.^[7] He also called the adjective, from Shakespeare's "antiquary times" in Troilus and Cressida, "improper",^[7] though the OED records it from 1599 to 1919.^[2] In later use the noun came to cover especially a dealer in old books, coins and art,^[5][8] and the American Heritage Dictionary now simply equates it with antiquarian.^[9]

Timeline

• 1566 – a student of the past or of its remains.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense to 1563.^[3]
• 1573 – a grotesque ornamental figure (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1592 – with the, written accounts of the past (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1599 – adjective, ancient, antique (obsolete by 1919).^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1606.^[3]
• 1601 – an official custodian or recorder of antiquities.^[2]
• 1655 – the quality of being ancient, antiquity (obsolete, rare).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who studies or collects antiquities or antiques: The local antiquary catalogued every coin found on the farm.^[3][8][2]
2. A dealer in old books, coins or works of art.^[5][8]
3. (archaic) An official keeper or recorder of antiquities.^[3][2][6]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1599–1919) Belonging to antiquity; ancient.^[2][6][7][3]

Word family

• antiquarian

Related words

• antic
• ancient
• antiquated
• antique
• antiquity

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt