library

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈlaɪ.brər.i/, US /ˈlaɪ.brer.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English librarye,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman librarie, Old French librairie “collection of books; bookseller's shop”,^[3][2] and directly from Latin librārium (“chest for books”) and librāria (“bookseller's shop; in Medieval Latin, a library”),^[3][4] noun uses of librārius (“concerning books”),^[3][5] from liber (“book, paper; the inner bark of a tree”) (genitive librī).^[3][2] Latin liber, from Proto-Italic *lufro-, first meant the inner bark of trees, used for writing,^[3][2] and is perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *leub(h)- (“to strip, peel”), the root of leaf;^[3][4] de Vaan accepts this “for want of a better alternative”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place set apart to hold books, a room in a house: about 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,^[6][2] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[3] A collection of books is from before 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A building or set of rooms with a collection of books for public use is from about 1449.^[6] A circulating library, a commercial lending library, is from 1835 in the OED,^[6] and a theatre-ticket agency was also called a library (1827).^[6] Publishers used library in the titles of uniform series of books from 1692.^[6] In most Romance languages the equivalent word survives only in the sense “bookshop”,^[3] as in modern French librairie.^[5][7] Collections of recordings, films and computer programs or routines are later extensions.^[8][9] Librarian meant a scribe in the 17th century and the keeper of a library in the 18th.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – a room for books.^[6][2]
• before 1382 – a collection of books.^[2]
• c. 1449 – a public library.^[6]
• 1692 – a publisher's series.^[6]
• 1835 – a circulating library.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A building or room where books, periodicals, recordings and the like are kept for reading, reference or lending.
2. A collection of books or other materials, especially one systematically arranged.
3. A series of books issued by a publisher in a uniform style.
4. (computing) A collection of standard programs or subroutines.

Word family

• interlibrary
• librarian
• circulating library
• film library
• lending library
• library paste
• library science
• library card

Related words

• libel
• leaf
• libretto
• liber

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster