collector of people - Wordsmith.org

Wordsmith.org

Greetings fellow humans,

I am trying to find a word which means 'collector of people'. Possible prefixes I've considered are homo- and anthro-, but these aren't quite right. The only suffix I've thought of is -phile but that isn't quite right either.

If anyone can help to answer this question or point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Cassandra

What type of collector are we talking about? Headhunter, slaver, autograph hound, "zoo" keeper, serial killer, paparazzo???

I'm sure Cass is looking for a term to describe the kind of guy who analyzes folks' character then categorizes them

Hmm.. probably not in the serial killer category! A friend asked me this question and I think she meant someone who collects interesting people over the course of their lifetime, be it in a benevolent way, a social-climber way, or in a clinical way, as in collecting stamps or fossils. Is that any help?! Any definition would be helpful, as it may point the way to the definition I'm after. Thanks!

Anthrologist? That is more like 'studier'. Oh, did you want a real word?

Anthropologist seems to connote a bone collector.

anthranthologist?

Cass: I had thought that's what I was suggesting, but you put it much better

As Jackie did, I had also consulted the reverse dict with no luck whatever. It's likely that there is simply no such word

Welcome, Cassandra. :-) I ran your phrase through Onelook's Reverse Dictionary, and didn't find anything that fit. There are some neat words, there, though, like timbromaniac. And brandophilist; hey, tsuwm, how come it isn't bandophilist?
And, if anyone cares to go look, what in the world is that little squiggle thing in #16?
little squiggle thing

>>little squiggle thing<<

I get little boxes, no squiggle thingy.

Quote:

>>little squiggle thing<<

I get little boxes, no squiggle thingy.

I get ?s, not squiggles or boxes!?

edit: but at AHD I see Bart�k, B�la, so that's a cute accent

Quote:

And brandophilist; hey, tsuwm, how come it isn't bandophilist?

what band of cigar was that?!

edit: bandophile, bandophilist:
A collector of head scarves, a fondness for collecting head scarves.

Greek anthropos 'human' (cf. Latin homo, hominis), ander 'man' (vir), gyne 'woman' (foemina); anthologia 'collection of flowers' (cf. Latin calque florilegium). I suppose you could coin hominilegium as a 'collection of people', but hominilector 'collector of people' seems more like a 'reader to people', but could do I suppose. Greek legein and Latin lego mean both 'to collect, gather' and 'to read'. Greek logos 'word' is related. Why not just use people-collector?

what band of cigar was that?! Well--I just thought a collector of cigar brands would be the brandophilist, and that a collector of cigar bands should be a bandophilist! [eg]
(Don't smack your forehead too hard!)

Rest assured, Cassandra, that the concept "collector of people" has no single word denotation in any language. "Collector-of-souls", as is described the hobby of the Devil, might - but a single word describing the act of gathering a group of selected people about you as you go through life doesn't exist, otherwise R. A. Lafferty who delights in the use of obscure words in languages live or dead, would have used it in this paragraph from his great Ktistic novel novel ARRIVE AT EASTERWINE.

"The big thing is never to be found in an individual person." I issued.
"The big thing is found only in the intersection of persons."
"You are wrong!" he stated so thunderously as to partly convince me. "The great thing is found only in the individual, in me. The soul is found only in me. That which is found in the contusion of persons is something else. It feels, it smarts, it almost seems to have a life. But it is only a bruising, not a soul."
(And this man was proforming certain indignities within me, finding my ultimate workings.)
"Man is only a man when he is a limb of mankind." I issued.
"Blothering Bosh, you little collector of miniaturized persons, you work too minutely even to see the big thing." he growled. "Man is only man when he rises prodigiously above mankind."

Now.
If we only had a single word for those most fortunate people who are blissfully mutually collected.

Wait! I think Kurt Vonnegut did. He called it a "duprass". Yeah, that was it...a "duprass.".

Quote:

"Blothering Bosh...

just so.

Quote:

Quote:

"Blothering Bosh...

just so.

Ah yes, to you, joe friday, sans capitalization, just so.
Yes joe, just so, just so very very so.

Otherwise your boss, the uncapitalized "tsuwm" would have supplied a word that fit.

WhasamattaU, tsuwm? Cat's Cradle got your tongue?

Quote:

Wait! I think Kurt Vonnegut did. He called it a "duprass". Yeah, that was it...a "duprass.".

Duprass?! Duprass?! Talk about bothering bosh. A duprass is a karass comprising only two people.