philately
(fɪˈlætɪlɪ)
[ad. F. philatélie, f. Gr. ϕιλ(ο-, philo- + ἀτελής free from tax or charge, ἀτέλεια exemption from payment (ἐξ ἀτελείας without payment, free, franco). Proposed by M. Herpin, a postage-stamp collector, in Le Collectionneur de Timbres-poste (15 Nov. 1864).
(When a letter was ‘carriage-free’ or carriage-prepaid by the sender, it was formerly in various countries stamped free, or franco; the fact is now indicated by the letter bearing an impressed receipt stamp, or its substitute an adhesive label (commonly called a postage-stamp), for the amount; the Greek ἀτελής, being a passable equivalent of free or franco, has for the purpose of word-making been employed to express the freimarke, franco-bollo, franco-mark, frank-stamp, or ‘postage-stamp’, and so to supply the second element in philatélie.)]
a. The pursuit of collecting, arranging, and studying the stamped envelopes or covers, adhesive labels or ‘postage-stamps’, postcards, and other devices employed in different countries and at different times, in effecting the prepayment of letters or packets sent by post; stamp-collecting.
| 1865 Stamp.-Coll. Mag. 1 Dec. 182/2 He [M. Herpin] proposes the word philatélie, which we anglicise into ‘philately’... Twelve months have glided on..and the French terms philatéle and philatélie, as well as their English equivalents ‘philately’, ‘philatelist’, and ‘philatelic’..have become household words in the postage-stamp collecting world. Ibid. Advts., The works of the Philatelic Society of France. 1867 Philatelist I. 37 A poser to the non-initiated in philately. 1881 Athenæum 1 Oct. 431/2 It is possibly a question whether the science should properly be called philately or timbrophily. |
b. Stamps collectively.
| 1930 19th Cent. Dec. 785 The small-bourgeois quality of English philately remained untarnished with sham elegance. |
Hence philatelic (fɪləˈtɛlɪk) a, relating to or engaged in philately; so philaˈtelical a.; hence philaˈtelically adv.; phiˈlatelism, philately; phiˈlatelist, a person devoted to philately, a stamp-collector (whence philateˈlistic a.); phiˌlateloˈmaniac, one with whom stamp-collecting has become a mania.
| 1865 Philatelic, Philatelist [see above]. 1866 (title) The Philatelist: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine for Stamp Collectors. 1871 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. Suppl. Apr. 7/1 A manuscript Philatelic Magazine. 1871 E. L. Pemberton in Stamp-Coll. Mag. IX. 130 The faults..incident to American philatelism. 1872 ― (title) The Philatelical Journal. 1882 Sat. Rev. 15 Apr. 472/2 Many a parent..will now hasten to provide him instead with the records of philatelism. 1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 26 July, It is valued at about $1000 by philatelomaniacs. 1890 Times 20 May 5 On May 19. 1890, an exhibition was opened of postage stamps collected by the London Philatelic Society. 1890 Standard 25 Apr. 5/6 The philatelistic scholar. 1893 Westm. Gaz. 18 Oct. 3/1 Of the exhibition itself..we shall not attempt to speak..philatelically. |