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REFERENCE

library

n.
US //ˈɫaɪbɹɛˌɹi// UK //lˈaɪbɹəɹi// li·brary
  1. 1 building or institution (n.)
    A1 Beginner

    a building or room where you can borrow books, magazines, and other media.

    an institution or building that houses a collection of books and media for public or private use and lending.

    Example

    I need to go to the library to return these books before they are late.

    Example

    The local library has evolved into a community hub, offering digital resources and workshops alongside its traditional lending services.
    • athenaeum
    Pitfall
    I went to the library to buy a book.
    I went to the library to borrow a book.

    In English, a library is for borrowing; a bookstore or bookshop is for buying.

  2. 2 private collection (n.)
    B1 Intermediate

    a personal collection of books or information that someone owns.

    a private or specialized collection of books, records, or stored information.

    Example

    He has a large library of classic films in his basement.

    Example

    Over several decades, the professor amassed a private library that included rare first editions and obscure academic journals.
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  1. 3 software code (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Technical Computing

    a collection of ready-made code that programmers use to build software.

    a collection of pre-written code, routines, or functions that a program can use to perform specific tasks.

    Example

    You can use a standard library to handle the math in your program.

    Example

    By importing a specialized graphics library, the developers were able to implement complex visual effects without writing the low-level code from scratch.
  2. 4 biological samples (n.)
    C1 Advanced Technical Science

    a collection of genetic material, like DNA, used for scientific research.

    a collection of DNA fragments from a single organism or related to a specific disease, stored for study.

    Example

    The researchers created a genomic library to study the plant's DNA.

    Example

    The laboratory maintains a vast library of viral strains to facilitate the rapid development of new vaccines during outbreaks.
Origin

From Middle English librarie, via Anglo-Norman librarie and Old French librairie, the word first records the Norman's taste for Latin vocabulary, in this case librarium, 'bookcase' or 'chest for books', lifted from librarius, 'pertaining to books', itself from liber, the book that began as stripped bark of tree. Proto-Indo-European leub(ʰ)-, 'to peel', supplies the root. The Old English term, bōchūs ('bookhouse'), disappeared some time after the imported romance term took root.

The continental cousins turned practical quite early; French librairie, Italian libreria, Spanish librería, Portuguese livraria, and even Romanian livrărie now mean 'bookshop', a retail sense imported by the 16th century. England alone kept the old meaning.

Word family

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