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Dec 14, 2022
This week’s theme
Words related to books

This week’s words
bibliophagist
prosateur
bibliopole
peritext
bibliophobe

bibliopole
Rare Book Room, Powell’s Books
Portland, Oregon

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

bibliopole

PRONUNCIATION:
(BIB-lee-uh-pohl)

MEANING:
noun: A bookseller, especially of rare works.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin bibliopola (bookseller), from Greek bibliopoles, biblio- (book) + polein (to sell). Earliest documented use: 1775.

USAGE:
“An old London bibliopole ... Heywood Hill has been selling books in Mayfair since 1936, when its catalogue included the first British edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses.”
For the Person Who Has Everything... Bespoke Libraries; The Economist (London, UK); Dec 20, 2014.

See more usage examples of bibliopole in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary". -Ellen Jane Willis, writer (14 Dec 1941-2006)

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