Anthologizers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who compile collections of selected literary works from various authors
2. People engaged in gathering and curating a range of written pieces to present in a single volume
3. Those who choose and organize texts from different sources for the purpose of publication or study

Etymology: Anthologizers are the people who compile anthologies, and the word is a plain stack of three parts. The core is "anthology," from Greek "anthologia," meaning "flower-gathering," built from "anthos" (flower) and "legein" (to gather). The Greeks used the image for a collection of short poems, as if the poems were blossoms picked from different fields and bound into one bouquet. The verb "anthologize" came into English from that noun, adding the Greek-derived ending "-ize," which passed through Late Latin "-izare" and Old French before reaching English. The agent suffix "-er" then turned the verb into a noun for the person doing the work. Because English treats "-er" as a productive ending, speakers can attach it to almost any verb, so "anthologizer" needed no special coinage: it simply followed from the verb once that verb existed.

Synonyms: compilers, editors