anthology

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A collection of poems, stories, or other writings, often by different authors.

   The anthology includes short stories from twenty modern writers.

Simplified etymology

Anthology comes from Greek anthologia, literally a “collection of flowers,” formed from anthos, “flower,” and logia, “collection.” The floral image was transferred to a selection of especially fine poems by various authors, giving the word its literary sense in English in the early 17th century.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνθολογία (anthología, “flower-gathering”), from ἀνθολογέω (anthologéō, “I gather flowers”), from ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”) + λέγω (légō, “I gather, pick up, collect”), coined by Meleager of Gadara circa 60 BCE, originally as Στέφανος (στέφανος (stéphanos, “garland”)) to describe a collection of poetry, later retitled anthology – see Greek Anthology. Anthologiai were collections of small Greek poems and epigrams, because in Greek culture the flower symbolized the finer sentiments that only poetry can express. By surface analysis, antho- + -logy.

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External links

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