Word of the Week – Anthology

I’d never paused to think about how old these are, but in fact, the English word anthology as a collection of poems dates back to the 1600s…and is borrowed from Latin and Greek words for the same idea, proving anthologies have been around pretty much forever.

But did you know where the word comes from? Anthos actually means “flower,” and legein is “to gather.” So an anthology is literally a gathering of flowers, though it’s been used for centuries to mean literature, not a bouquet.

Still, I love that image, don’t you? That when we collect beautiful words, it’s like arranging blooms together…