Tome, a noun, refers to a volume that's part of a larger set or simply a large, often heavy, book. Its origin is linked to Greek words for 'section' and 'to cut.'
Tome is a noun referring to a volume that is part of a larger work or a large, scholarly book. It derives from Latin and Greek words meaning 'section' or 'roll of papyrus,' related to 'to cut.'
| Word | tome |
|---|---|
| Date | June 29, 2018 |
| Type | noun |
| Syllables | TOHM |
| Etymology | Tome comes from Latin tomus, which comes from Greek tomos, meaning "section" or "roll of papyrus." Tomos is from the Greek verb temnein, which means "to cut." In ancient times, some of the longest scrolls of papyrus occasionally were divided into sections. When it was first used in English in the 16th century, tome was a book that was a part of a multi-volume work or a major part of a single-volume book. Now a tome is most often simply a large and often ponderous book. |
| Examples | It took me more than a month to finish reading that 800-page tome on the French Revolution. "I also bring a book I've never read, some large tome that I'm wary of, but that I also think will captivate me once I'm on page one hundred, and I won't be able to put it down." — Alejandro Zambra, Not To Read (translated by Megan McDowell), 2018 |
| Definition | 1 : a volume forming part of a larger work 2 : book; especially : a large or scholarly book |
Tags: wordoftheday::noun
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