This week’s theme
Words about books

This week’s words
bibliophilia
chrestomathy
biblioclast
feuilleton
bibliophage

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(FOI-i-ton)

MEANING:

noun:
1. The part of a European newspaper devoted to light literature, criticism, and the like; also something printed in this section.
2. A novel published in installments.
3. A short literary piece

ETYMOLOGY:

From French, from feuillet (sheet of paper), diminutive of feuille (leaf), from Old French foille, from Latin folium (leaf). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhel- (to thrive or bloom), which also gave us flower, bleed, bless, foliage, blossom, and blade. Earliest documented use: 1845.

USAGE:

“Finally, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung offers tongue-in-cheek reading of the situation on the front page of its feuilleton section, saying, ‘Germany is a world champion -- at least in exporting goods. We even offer up our students to study abroad, especially when they are talented.’”
Germans Stew Over Joblessness; Der Spiegel (Hamburg, Germany); Mar 15, 2005.

“He’s to run my next as a feuilleton. This -- this venture is to be rather more serious in tone than any that he’s done hitherto.”
Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford; The Inheritors; William Heinemann; 1901.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: