Anthology

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Origin

New Latin anthologia collection of epigrams, from Middle Greek, from Greek, flower gathering, from anthos flower + logia collecting, from legein to gather; akin to Sanskrit andha herb — more at legend

The word entered the English language in the seventeenth century, from the Greek word, ἀνθολογία (anthologia "a collection of flowers"), a reference to one of the earliest known anthologies, the Garland (Στέφανος), the introduction to which compares each of its anthologized poets to a flower. That Garland by Meléagros of Gadara formed the kernel for what has become known as the Greek Anthology.

Florilegium, a Latin derivative for a collection of flowers, was used in medieval Europe for an anthology of Latin proverbs and textual excerpts. Shortly before anthology had entered the language, English had begun using "miscellany" as a word for such a collection.

Definitions

  • 1: a collection of selected literary pieces or passages or works of art or music
  • 2: assortment <an anthology of threadbare clichés of … bistro cuisine — Jay Jacobs>

Description

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts. In genre fiction anthology is used to categorize collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, usually collected into a single volume for publication.

The complete collections of works are often called Complete Works or Opera Omnia (Latin language equivalent). A book comprising previously published, related works is often called an omnibus edition of those works, or simply an omnibus. Commonly two or more components have been previously published as books but a collection of shorter works, or shorter works collected with one previous book, may be an omnibus. One important class is works by one author.[1]