philately

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2017 is: philately • \fuh-LAT-uh-lee\  • noun : the collection and study of postage and imprinted stamps : stamp collecting Examples: "With philately, it's not just the stamp that makes it valuable, but often the cancellation mark. Also, errors are considered good things." — Nancy Kennedy, The Citrus County (Florida) Chronicle, 5 June 2015 "Evidently, however, there is still enough interest in philately that local, national and international stamp shows are still regularly happening. San Diego has a Philatelic Council and an annual San Diego-based Sandical stamp show." — Karen Pearlman, The San Diego Union Tribune, 26 May 2016 Did you know? Who wouldn't love something tax free? George Herpin did. He was a French stamp fancier back in the 1860s, when stamps were a fairly new invention. Before stamps, the recipient of a letter—not the sender—had to pay the postage. Stamps forced the sender to foot the bill, and created a lot of stamp lovers among folks on the receiving end of the mail—and a mania for stamp collecting. Timbromania was toyed with as a term to affix to this new hobby—from the French word for stamp, timbre. But when Herpin suggested philatélie (anglicized to philately), combining the Greek root phil-, meaning "loving," with Greek ateleia, meaning "tax-exemption," stamp lovers everywhere took a fancy to it and the name stuck. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.