Album

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈælbəm/

Definitions

1. A collection of recorded songs or musical pieces released together as a single work, or a bound book with blank pages used for collecting and displaying photographs, autographs, or other memorabilia
2. A compilation of musical tracks or songs released as one unit, or a book designed for storing and showcasing images, memorabilia, and other keepsakes
3. A set of music recordings presented together for listeners, or a physical book intended to hold printed pictures, notes, or keepsakes

Etymology: The Latin "album" originally meant "blank white writing tablet." Roman writers used it for a board whitened with gypsum or chalk, on which notices, public announcements and lists were posted, and it was the plain sense of the adjective "albus," "white," that gave the word its colour. English borrowed it directly from Latin, so the word arrived without the Old French detour that brought many other Latin words into the language. The leap from a blank tablet to a musical collection came much later. The word first meant a book of blank pages for keeping autographs, photographs or pressed flowers, and only afterwards was applied to a set of separate items bound together. Phonograph records were sold in paper sleeves that looked like those albums, and when multi-record sets were packaged in a single binder, the name stuck to the bound collection. That is how a word for empty white space came to name a whole set of recorded songs.

Synonyms: collection, book, anthology, compilation, portfolio