bibliotaph

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From French bibliotaphe, from biblio- + Ancient Greek τάφος (táphos, burial, tomb).

Noun

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bibliotaph (plural bibliotaphs)

  1. (rare) One who "buries" books, typically by hoarding them unread, hiding them, locking them away, or otherwise shutting them up and keeping them from use
    • 1866 August 31, The Bookseller:
      He was, by his knowledge of the intellectual value of his store, a little bit of a bibliotaph: we have reason to think he had this feeling to an extent he knew nothing of himself.
    • 1888, William Blades, Enemies of Books:
      The late Sir Thomas Phillipps, of Middle Hill, was a remarkable instance of a bibliotaph. He bought bibliographical treasures simply to bury them.
    • 1898, Leon H. Vincent, The Bibliotaph And Other People:
      The bibliotaph buries books; not literally, but sometimes with as much effect as if he had put his books underground. There are several varieties of him. The dog-in-the-manger bibliotaph is the worst; he uses his books but little himself, and allows others to use them not at all. On the other hand, a man may be a bibliotaph simply from inability to get at his books. He may be homeless, a bachelor, a denizen of boarding-houses, a wanderer upon the face of the earth.
    • 1950, Holbrook Jackson, The Anatomy of Bibliomania, page 534:
      the vast collection of State-papers [...] were found only when they accidentally fell out of a false ceiling of his chambers in Lincoln's Inn; but doubtless he was a purposeful bibliotaph, otherwise those documents might not have survived those revolutionary times.

Translations

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