bibliognost
English
Etymology
From French bibliognoste; equivalent to biblio- (“book”), from Ancient Greek βῐβλῐ́ον (biblíon), and γνώστης (gnṓstēs, “expert”).
Noun
bibliognost (plural bibliognosts)
- One versed in books.
- 1823, I[saac] D’Israeli, “A Bibliognoste”, in A Second Series of Curiosities of Literature: Consisting of Researches in Literary, Biographical, and Political History; of Critical and Philosophical Inquiries; and of Secret History, volume III, London: John Murray, page 133:
- Mr. Dibdin, since the above was written, has witnessed the confusion of the mind, and the gigantic industry, of our bibliognoste which consisted of many trunks full of memoranda. […] A bibliognoste, from the Greek, is one knowing in title-pages and colophons, and in editions; the place and year when printed; the presses whence issued; and all the minutiæ of a book. […] I shall catch our bibliognoste in the hour of book-rapture! It will produce a collection of bibliographical writers, and show to the second-sighted Edinburgher what human contrivances have been raised by the art of more painful writers than himself—either to postpone the day of universal annihilation, or to preserve for our posterity three centuries hence, the knowledge which now so busily occupies us, and to transmit to them something more than what Bacon calls “Inventories” of our literary treasures.
- 1962, William Manchester, Portrait of a President, Boston, Mass.; Toronto, Ont.: Little, Brown and Company, page xiii:
- Bibliognosts will note that there are few footnotes.
- 2012 April 15, Patrice Wilding, “Resourceful librarian: City woman puts social media to work for institution”, in The Sunday Times, page F3:
- What it means to be a librarian has changed significantly over the last few decades, and Sheli McHugh is at the forefront of a new generation of tech-savvy bibliognosts.
- 2019, Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson, Shadows of the Short Days, Gollancz, →ISBN:
- Only the bibliognosts knew how many volumes the library held.
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