Library

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈlaɪ.bɹi/

Definitions

1. A building or room containing a collection of books and other materials organized for reading, study, or reference
2. A facility that houses a variety of informational resources, such as books, periodicals, and digital media, for the purposes of research, education, and leisure
3. An establishment designed to provide access to a wide array of printed and electronic materials, fostering learning and cultural enrichment

Etymology: The English word that now means a room or building full of books once had a rival: Old English speakers called such a place a "bōchūs," literally "book house," and that native term held ground for centuries before Latin-derived "library" pushed it aside. The Latin source, "librarium," meant a bookcase or chest for holding books, and it grew from "librarius," "concerning books." Its root, "liber," originally meant the inner bark of trees, since bark and early writing surfaces were often the same material, and "liber" came to mean paper, parchment, and finally book. A stranger twist lies in the Romance languages. Where English kept the sense of a collection of books, French "librairie," Italian "libreria," Spanish "librería," and Portuguese "livraria" now mostly mean a bookshop. This shift is fairly recent, dating to the 16th century in French, and it ended up displacing the older sense of a collection, so a French speaker asking for a "librairie" is looking for something to buy rather than something to borrow from.

Synonyms: collection, archive