Bibliopolism

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /bɪblɪˈəʊpəlɪz(ə)m/

Definitions

1. The profession involving the purchase and sale of books, with a strong focus on rare and collectible editions
2. The trade related to buying and selling books, particularly those that are unique or hold significant value
3. Engagement in the business of acquiring and vending books, especially those considered unique or collectible

Etymology: "Bibliopolism" is simply the trade in books, and its history is a matter of two parts joined together. The first part is "bibliopole," a bookseller, which comes from Greek "biblion," meaning book, combined with "polein," to sell. The Greek root gives us words like "bibliography" and "bibliophile," so the family of English book-words is closely related. The ending "-ism" is a Greek-derived suffix that English uses to form nouns denoting a practice, activity, or system, as in "baptism" or "journalism." Attaching it to "bibliopole" produces a noun for the whole business of selling books rather than for a single bookseller. The word is a learned formation, built deliberately from Greek parts, and it belongs to the same stock of scholarly vocabulary as its relatives.