Antiquaries

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who studies or collects antiques, often focusing on historical artifacts and their significance in culture and society
2. An individual dedicated to the research and preservation of ancient objects, investigating their origins and value
3. Someone engaged in the exploration of historical relics, contributing to the understanding of past civilizations through their collections and studies

Etymology: Antiquaries is the plural of "antiquary", a word that began as a Latin adjective before it ever named a person. Late Latin "antīquārius" meant "pertaining to antiquity", and it was built from "antīquus", "ancient", with the suffix "-ārius", which marks a person connected with something. The English noun "antiquary" is the same word in a new role: a person who studies or collects old things. The word and its close relative "antique" share a root, so the English noun is essentially "antique" with the "-ary" ending added. That makes it a fairly transparent formation: the thing that is old, plus the suffix for the person who deals with it. The collectors' sense is the one the modern plural carries, though the word once covered scholars of ancient remains as much as hoarders of curiosities.

Synonyms: antiquarian, historian, collector