英语词汇library的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

library. Library derives from the Latin liber, “book,” but the first library known with certainty to have existed was a collec- tion of clay tablets in Babylonia in about the 21st century b.c. The first private library in ancient Greece was probably that of Aristotle in about 334 b.c. The dramatist Euripides was also said to have a large library, as did Plato and Samos, and later Mark Antony is supposed to have given the vast 200,000- volume library of the kings of Pergamum as a present to Cleo- patra. Tradition ascribes the formation of the first public library at Athens to the beneficent tyrant Pisistratus in 540 b.c., but the earliest public library still existing today is the Vatican Library in Rome, founded in 1450. A public library was opened in Bos- ton as early as 1653, and Benjamin Franklin proposed the Li- brary Company of Philadelphia in 1731. The purchase of Tho- mas Jefferson’s library of 6,457 books formed the nucleus of the U.S. Library of Congress after the original holdings of the na- tional library in Washington, D.C., were destroyed by fire in 1814. Created by Congress in 1800, the library is now the world’s largest, with 35 acres of floor space containing some 100 million items, including over 17 million books. By law the library on Capitol Hill must be given two copies of every book registered for copyright in the United States, and over 60,000 are published in America annually. See also bodleian library.

词汇	library
词源	library. Library derives from the Latin liber, “book,” but the first library known with certainty to have existed was a collec- tion of clay tablets in Babylonia in about the 21st century b.c. The first private library in ancient Greece was probably that of Aristotle in about 334 b.c. The dramatist Euripides was also said to have a large library, as did Plato and Samos, and later Mark Antony is supposed to have given the vast 200,000- volume library of the kings of Pergamum as a present to Cleo- patra. Tradition ascribes the formation of the first public library at Athens to the beneficent tyrant Pisistratus in 540 b.c., but the earliest public library still existing today is the Vatican Library in Rome, founded in 1450. A public library was opened in Bos- ton as early as 1653, and Benjamin Franklin proposed the Li- brary Company of Philadelphia in 1731. The purchase of Tho- mas Jefferson’s library of 6,457 books formed the nucleus of the U.S. Library of Congress after the original holdings of the na- tional library in Washington, D.C., were destroyed by fire in 1814. Created by Congress in 1800, the library is now the world’s largest, with 35 acres of floor space containing some 100 million items, including over 17 million books. By law the library on Capitol Hill must be given two copies of every book registered for copyright in the United States, and over 60,000 are published in America annually. See also bodleian library.
随便看	store boats storm door stormonter storyville stovaine stove st patrick-s cabbage st peter-s cock stradivarius strafe straight arrow straight from the horse-s mouth straight from the shoulder straight through hell and out the other side strait straitlaced strangle stranglehold strangle with my bare hands straphanger strata strata smith strawberry strawberry friend straw boss