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| illustration by Eleni Kalorkoti |
There was a beautiful piece in the New York Times yesterday by Ramona Ausubel about the marvel of mailing things halfway around the world. Check it out if you're a fellow philepistolist.
Showing posts with label philepistolist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philepistolist. Show all posts
Thursday, August 1
Mail in the News!
There was a beautiful piece in the New York Times yesterday by Ramona Ausubel about the marvel of mailing things halfway around the world. Check it out if you're a fellow philepistolist.
Wednesday, October 31
Come to a holiday mail party in DC on November 26!
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| Click to embiggen! |
Bring your own Christmas or holiday cards to write, or make some there. It's a way to make what can be a pain in the neck into a fun activity with friends. Also, you can get the card-sending out of the way early in the season -- and not feel guilty when people send cards to you.
I'll have some mass-produced holiday cards available, along with supplies for making your own. Donations are always welcomed, but not required, to use either. (You can bring your own supplies, too, of course.)
The library is located at 3160 16th Street, NW in Mt. Pleasant, on the southwest corner of 16th and Lamont Streets. We will be in the large meeting room, which as you come in through the new main entrance, is on the right.
If you're the sort who likes to RSVP (which I appreciate) and have this on your Facebook calendar, click here.
View Larger Map
via Metro
Columbia Heights, Green and Yellow lines. Exit the west entrance, walk 1 block west on Irving Street (past the Five Guys) to 16th Street. Turn right on 16th Street to head 1 block north.
via bus
S1, S2, S4 - pull cord for Lamont. If coming from the north, you'll be on the right corner. If coming from the south, cross 16th Street to reach the library.
S9 - pull cord for Irving Street. Walk one block north on 16th; library will be on your left.
42 - pull cord for Lamont. Walk one block east on Lamont; library entrance will be on your right.
via bicycle
The renovation of the library came with new bike racks. There are also places to lock up along Lamont and 16th Streets.
Wednesday, January 11
Coining a word is nerdy work.
I've always been curious about what to call myself as a lover of all things postal. While I enjoy Donovan's colorful "postal pervert" moniker, I didn't want to be too high on the Google search results for that one. "Philatelist" is the perfect word for postage stamp aficionados, but its popular meaning is too specific. I like stamps, but I also like mail art and letters and envelopes and stationery and post office buildings, which aren't understood to be covered under "philatelist."
As someone who majored in English, I have often claimed that I am qualified to make up words if I wanted. Usually they're of the "ricockulous" variety, but after I complained about the lack of a word for postal love one too many times, Dan told me to put that claimed-expertise to work, and then helped me look some etymologies up.
I liked the idea of keeping the love of all things postal-related to the already recognized love of postage stamps, which, as I said above, already has a word: philately. Turns out that since the postage stamp didn't exist until 1840, the word was coined by Georges Herpin in 1864 who was having the exact same problem I am in wanting a better word to describe his hobby. He joined the Greek "phil," meaning "brotherly love or affection" to the closest word to stamp in Greek that he could come up with, "ateleia," meaning lack of taxes, since stamps at the time were used for both postage and as proof of payment of duties.
Georges Herpin, that sexy, word-coining bastard.
Of course, since an official, government-sanctioned postal service wasn't invented in ancient Greece, there isn't exactly an ancient Greek word for it, either, so I'm back to where our friend Georges was, and needed to find something that fit the general idea I was going for.
I started translating mail-related words into Greek to see what popped up as possible fits. "Mail" transliterated roughly into "taxidromeio," which seemed too close to the literal translation of "philately." Once I transliterated the translation of "letter," though, I knew I had my answer. I had no idea that "epistle" was already based in Greek ("epystol"), and I already have affection for the word since it relates to a form of literature; an epistolary novel is one of my favorite genres.
So.
Phil*e*pist*list (fil-ih-pis-list)
noun
One who enjoys writing and receiving letters & postal mail.
No longer shall we have to describe our hobby as "well, I really love mail and mail art and pen pals and pretty stationery and making my own envelopes." We have a word! Go forth, my fellow philepistlists, and proliferate our new moniker!
Edited to add:
The incredibly smart Ashley came up with adding a resting syllable in there to make it "philepistolist." I like it being easier to say, but then the T will be pronounced instead of silent like in "epistle." What are your thoughts?
As someone who majored in English, I have often claimed that I am qualified to make up words if I wanted. Usually they're of the "ricockulous" variety, but after I complained about the lack of a word for postal love one too many times, Dan told me to put that claimed-expertise to work, and then helped me look some etymologies up.
I liked the idea of keeping the love of all things postal-related to the already recognized love of postage stamps, which, as I said above, already has a word: philately. Turns out that since the postage stamp didn't exist until 1840, the word was coined by Georges Herpin in 1864 who was having the exact same problem I am in wanting a better word to describe his hobby. He joined the Greek "phil," meaning "brotherly love or affection" to the closest word to stamp in Greek that he could come up with, "ateleia," meaning lack of taxes, since stamps at the time were used for both postage and as proof of payment of duties.
Georges Herpin, that sexy, word-coining bastard.Of course, since an official, government-sanctioned postal service wasn't invented in ancient Greece, there isn't exactly an ancient Greek word for it, either, so I'm back to where our friend Georges was, and needed to find something that fit the general idea I was going for.
I started translating mail-related words into Greek to see what popped up as possible fits. "Mail" transliterated roughly into "taxidromeio," which seemed too close to the literal translation of "philately." Once I transliterated the translation of "letter," though, I knew I had my answer. I had no idea that "epistle" was already based in Greek ("epystol"), and I already have affection for the word since it relates to a form of literature; an epistolary novel is one of my favorite genres.
So.
Phil*e*pist*list (fil-ih-pis-list)
noun
One who enjoys writing and receiving letters & postal mail.
No longer shall we have to describe our hobby as "well, I really love mail and mail art and pen pals and pretty stationery and making my own envelopes." We have a word! Go forth, my fellow philepistlists, and proliferate our new moniker!
Edited to add:
The incredibly smart Ashley came up with adding a resting syllable in there to make it "philepistolist." I like it being easier to say, but then the T will be pronounced instead of silent like in "epistle." What are your thoughts?
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