Where does “library” come from?
Library comes from Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium meaning book collection, ultimately from Latin liber meaning book, derived from Proto-Indo-European lewbʰ-.
library (English): An institution which holds books and/or other...
Definitions
- An institution which holds books and/or other...
Ancestry of “library”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | librarie | library, reading room; bookshelf, bookcase;... |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman French | librarie | — |
| 3 | Old French | librairie | library |
| 4 | Latin | librarium | a bookcase; a library |
| 5 | Latin | librarius | of or pertaining to books; a scribe, copyist,... |
| 6 | Latin | Līber | — |
| 7 | Old Latin | loeber | — |
| 8 | French | lober | to lob |
| 9 | French | lob | lob |
| 10 | English | lob | To throw or hit a ball into the air in a high... |
| 11 | English | long | Having much distance from one terminating point... |
| 12 | English | longitude | Angular distance measured west or east of the... |
| 13 | Old French | longitude | — |
| 14 | Latin | longitūdō | length, longitude; longness |
| 15 | Latin | longus | far, long; extended, prolonged; long; tedious,... |
| 16 | Latin | -ē | ly; used to form adverbs from adjectives |
| 17 | Latin | dis- | asunder, apart, in two; reversal, removal;... |
| 18 | Latin | calceus | shoe |
| 19 | Latin | calx | limestone; chalk; the finish line |