library

English

Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris
Biblioteka Kraljevo, Serbia

Etymology

Category:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#LIBRARYCategory:English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *lewbʰ- (cut off)#LIBRARY

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#LIBRARYCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#LIBRARY librarie, from Anglo-NormanCategory:English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#LIBRARY librarie, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#LIBRARY librairie, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#LIBRARY librarium (bookcase, chest for books), from librarius (concerning books), from liber (the inner bark of trees; paper, parchment, book), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#LIBRARY base *leub(ʰ)- (to strip, to peel). Displaced native Middle English bochous, bokhus (literally book house), from Old English bōchūs (compare bookhouse).

Romance cognates often mean “bookshop” instead: French librairie, Italian libreria, Spanish librería, Romanian librărie and Portuguese livraria. This is a relatively recent innovation (16th century in French), which ended up displacing the earlier sense.

Pronunciation

The non-RP UK pronunciation /ˈlaɪ.bɹi/ (whence the eye dialect spelling libry) exhibits haplology. It generally isn't stigmatized unlike the nonstandard American pronunciation, respelled as libary, which is often associated with illiteracy, an association that may be exacerbated by the word's definition as a place to engage in literacy.

Noun

library (plural libraries)Category:English lemmas#LIBRARYCategory:English nouns#LIBRARYCategory:English countable nouns#LIBRARYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#LIBRARYCategory:Pages with entries#LIBRARYCategory:Pages with 1 entry#LIBRARY

  1. An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various other services for its users.
    Synonyms: (nonstandard) bookhouse, (obsolete) bibliotheca, (obsolete) bibliotheque
    Coordinate terms: bookshop, bookstore
    She went to exchange her books at her local library.
    Category:English terms with usage examples#LIBRARY
  2. (by extension) Any institution that lends out its goods for use by the public or a community.
  3. A collection of books or other forms of stored information.
    • 1896, Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds, page 71:
      A small library of books has been written on the subject.
      Category:English terms with quotations#LIBRARY
    • 2008 May 15, Alberto Manguel, “A 30,000-Volume Window on the World”, in New York Times:
      My library is not a single beast but a composite of many others, a fantastic animal made up of the several libraries built and then abandoned, over and over again, throughout my life. I can’t remember a time in which I didn’t have a library of some sort. The present one is a sort of multilayered autobiography, each book holding the moment in which I opened it for the first time.
      Category:English terms with quotations#LIBRARY
  4. An equivalent collection of analogous information in a non-printed form, e.g. record library.
  5. A room dedicated to storing books.
  6. (programmingCategory:en:Programming#LIBRARY) A collection of software routines that provide functionality to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.
    Coordinate term: framework
  7. (geneticsCategory:en:Genetics#LIBRARY) A collection of DNA material from a single organism or relative to a single disease.
  8. (card gamesCategory:en:Card games#LIBRARY, Magic: The Gathering) The deck or draw pile.
    • 1994, The Magic, the Gathering: Pocket Players' Guide, →ISBN, page 167:
      At the conclusion of every duel, each player must show the remaining cards in his or her hand to the opponent to verify that no Restricted List duplicate cards appear there (e.g., to prove that a second Time Walk wasn't drawn from his library).
      Category:English terms with quotations#LIBRARY
    • 2006, Michael J. Flores, Deckade: 10 Years of Decks, Thoughts, and Theory!, →ISBN, page 228:
      But why did very good players shy away from cards that are so obviously good from our perspectives? One very real possibility is that library manipulation/increased selection and redundancy tech had not yet been established - after all, many players were amazed at Lestree's use of the Sylvan Library to draw extra cards!
      Category:English terms with quotations#LIBRARY
    • 2006, John Kaufeld, Jeremy Smith, Trading Card Games For Dummies, →ISBN, page 50:
      To win a game of Magic, you must achieve one of two chief goals: either be the first to reduce your opponent's life total from 20 to 0, or force him or her to attempt to draw a card from his or her library when there are no cards left in it.
      Category:English terms with quotations#LIBRARY
    • 2010, Shirley R. Steinberg, Michael Kehler, Lindsay Cornish, Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia, →ISBN, page 418:
      The deck becomes the draw pile, also called the library, from which each player repeatedly draws cards for his or her own hand, cards that are gradually included into the game.
      Category:English terms with quotations#LIBRARY
    • 2010, Zhigeng Pan, Maiga Chang, Adrian David Cheok, Transactions on Edutainment III, →ISBN, page 119:
      At this phase, most of TCGs only allow players drawing card(s) from a pack which is also called library or deck.
      Category:English terms with quotations#LIBRARY

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

Anagrams

Category:English haplological words#LIBRARY Category:en:Books#LIBRARYCategory:en:Buildings#LIBRARYCategory:en:Collectible card games#LIBRARY
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