Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
Good evening.
Thank you for your help. I feel that somehow there must be a word that precisely describes a collection of reprinted non-fiction, poems and excerpts from novels. Florilegium is elegant indeed but it might not be understandable. And I want to be understood.
Anthology denotes, in my mind, literature with a large L; in other words a collection of fiction or poetry. Strictly speaking, this collection is not that.
Digest appeals to me even though I am not certain that is the word. This collection of pieces about women's health is a "condensed but comprehensive account of a body of information" (Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th ed.).
I continue to look...
Albi
You could still go with florilegium, or indeed with any of the alternatives presented so far. All that's required is that you include a preface to the collection that discusses the word you chose, perhaps gives some information about its derivation, or tells the story of how you came to choose it.
When I read your initial post, the first thing that popped into my mind was Katharine and E.B. White's A Subtreasury of American Humor. It's made up of "reprinted non-fiction, poems and excerpts from novels", among other things, and every mention of it I can find refers to it as an "anthology". I remember checking this book out of the library over and over when I was younger, and I can't even remember (it's been that long) when I came to realize that "subtreasury" was used here in a distinctly non-standard and whimsical metaphorical sense.
"Analect": I've read the word before, but never thought to look it up. Isn't there some old classical work entitled The Analects of someone, Confucius or Jerome or Cicero or somebody? Interesting combination, "ana-" from Greek and "-lect" from Latin.
...No, wait, the Online Etymology Dictionary claims that it's not from the Latin legere ("to read") but the Greek legein ("to gather"). And in the online dictionaries in which I've been able to find "analect" at all—only three, so far—there are two conflicting definitions: One, apparently the older and more correct one, is a collection of teachings, but the more recent one, apparently a corruption of the older, is an abstract or extract. So ignoring the recent definition and claiming the old one, your suggestion, Glenn, sounds like a good one for Albi...were he still around listening.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)