Editorial On The Word "Philately"

Yes ikeyPikey, Asimov was the favourite SF author for me and my school pals. Way ahead of the rest. Still is looking at some of the modern authors' work.

Terry

I have to admit I hate the term philately. Looking at the options they seem to be:

Stampology / stampologist
Stampophily / stampophile / stampophilist
Postology / postologist
Postophily/ postophilist

And maybe from the Italians:

Francobology / francobologist - has a ring to it that one.
(Francophile has been taken already).

Terry

Wouldn't it have to be francobollology and francobollophily and francobollophile and francobollologist? That way it wouldn't be so easy to confuse with a lover of things French?

francobollology -- now that has a bit of a lilt to it, with the accent on the 3rd of the four o's (3rd to last syllable)

Je suis un francobollologiste!

J'aime les petits francobolli!

Ich bin ein francobollologe!

I'm a francobollologist!

Francobolollogically speaking this is getting hard to get my tongue around. Timbrologically speaking, however, we are still on only marginally shaky ground.

Speaking stampologically is the easy way out but, otoh, no pain no gain. Francobollology forever!

I think maybe francobollology might do, but as bollo is the Italian word for stamp maybe bollology and bollologist might fit better. Dear God, how did we get here?

Terry

Here's something else to add to this thread. How many have heard of the terms "necrophilately" or "necrophilatelist"? It's the study of stamps from dead countries. East Germany and the Soviet Union are recent examples.

I suspect there not a few ebay sellers who are fond of not dealing with sales tax. ;)

The problem with the Greek term is that the hobby doesn't involve friends of the freedom from tax, but friends of stamps--or paper generically--indicating that a fee was paid. Based upon the Greek tetelestai, "bill has been paid," and carti, paper, it would be more reasonable to go with cartitelestology, the study of paper indicating payment (or cartitelogy (contracted)), or philacartology. As for why the Victorian individual selected a Greek term, and why we stick to it rather than "stamp collecting," in my opinion this simply reflects the prevalence of classical education in Britain and Europe as compared to North America. In Britain particularly, it simply seems more natural to coin words from the roots of ancient languages whereas in North America we tend to coin by compounding existing analogous English terms.

Anyone have a suggestion in Latin?

Literally it could be symbolstudia (study of stamps) or perhaps disponoscience (scientific knowledge of the post or distribution process). Not very satisfactory, I know.

I think it is more to do with the scientific practice of using Latin and Greek to construct neologisms when naming new stuff. And historically the English language is an amalgam of all sorts of languages including Latin, Greek, French, German, Norse, Celtic, Hindi, and some Japanese. And of course from the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly during and after world war 2, American English, some variations of which are closer to the English of Shakespeare than modern Standard English. On top of all this, meanings of words in modern languages also change over time, whereas the Classical Latin and Greek words are cast in stone, so to speak.

Closest I can get in Latin to stamp collecting is signo conceptus. But that may be shaky.

Terry

Going back to greek, there is always tachydromikálogos. Or, anglicized, Tachydromikology. Study of postage.

That's it! Tachydromikology has a fine ring to it. Way more aggrandizing than philately. Brilliant! I'll have to take your word for it though.

So now the classes are, top to bottom:

Tachydromikologist - highest class with rightful disdain for lower classes
Philatelist - intermediate level snobbishness permitted only towards the lowest class
Stamp collector - lowest of the low cannot lord it over anyone