bibliophile

English

Alternative forms

• bibliophil (dated)

Etymology

First attested in 1824. From French bibliophile, from Ancient Greek βιβλίον (biblíon, “paper, document, tablet”) + φίλος (phílos, “beloved”). By surface analysis, biblio- +‎ -phile.

Noun

bibliophile (plural bibliophiles)

1. One who loves books.
   • 1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 97:

     A bad example often finds imitators, and every season there crop up for public sale one or two such collections formed by bibliomaniacs who, although calling themselves bibliophiles, ought really to be ranked among the worst enemies of books.

   • 2013 September 14, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎^[1], page R28:

     [A] savage passage of 14th-century invective about the text-obsessed nerdiness of the Florentine bibliophile and friend of Petrarch, Niccolò Niccoli ...

2. One who collects books, not necessarily due to any interest in reading them.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:bibliophile.

Synonyms

• booklover

Antonyms

• bibliophobe

Related terms

• bibliophilia
• arctophile, audiophile, conspirophile, museophile, vexillophile, videophile

Translations

person who loves books — see also book lover

• Catalan: bibliòfil m
• Czech: bibliofil m
• Dutch: bibliofiel (nl)
• Finnish: bibliofiili (fi)
• French: bibliophile (fr) m or f
• German: Bücherfreund m, Bücherfreundin f, Bücherliebhaber m, Bücherliebhaberin f, Buchliebhaber m, Buchliebhaberin f, Bibliophiler (de) m, Bibliophile (de) f
• Greek: βιβλιόφιλος (el) m (vivliófilos)
• Ido: bibliofilo (io)
• Irish: leabharbhách m
• Kazakh: кітапқұмар (kıtapqūmar)
• Macedonian: книгољубец m (knigoljubec), библиофил m (bibliofil)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bibliofil (no) m, biblioman m

• Polish: bibliofil (pl) m
• Portuguese: bibliófilo (pt) m, bibliófila f
• Russian: книголю́б (ru) m (knigoljúb), библиофи́л (ru) m (bibliofíl)
• Spanish: bibliófilo (es) m, bibliófila (es) f
• Swedish: bibliofil (sv)
• Turkish: kitapsever (tr), bibliyofil (tr)
• Ukrainian: бібліофі́л (uk) m (bibliofíl), книголю́б m (knyholjúb)

See also

• museophile
• bookworm
• why buy a book when you can join a library

French

Etymology

From biblio- +‎ -phile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.bli.jɔ.fil/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

bibliophile m or f by sense (plural bibliophiles)

1. bibliophile

Further reading

• “bibliophile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.