Bibliothecarial

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌbɪb.li.ə(ʊ).θəˈkɛəɹi.əl/

Definitions

1. Relating to the duties or profession of a librarian, particularly in managing collections of books and information resources
2. Pertaining to the activities and responsibilities associated with librarianship, such as cataloging, organizing, and preserving materials
3. Characteristic of the field of library science, focusing on the care and administration of library collections and user services

Etymology: The word is a chain of three layers stacked on one Greek idea. "Bibliotheca" came into Latin from Greek "bibliothēkē", literally a "book-repository" built from "biblion" (book) and "thēkē" (case or receptacle), so a library was originally a sort of box for books. Latin then made "bibliothēcārius" for the person who kept such a store, and English added the adjective-forming suffix "-al" to that noun. The suffix matters here. "Bibliothecary" is the older noun for a librarian, and "bibliothecarial" simply attaches "-al" to it to mean "of or relating to a librarian or library keeping." The result is a formal, slightly antique-sounding word that gives a librarian's work a dignified, scholarly tone, since it borrows its whole structure from Latin rather than from everyday English.

Synonyms: library-related, library, librarianship