bibliophage

A bibliophage is a person who reads all the time; a bookworm.

Bibliophage is a very rarely used word, unlike the commonly used bookworm. But with their extensive vocabularies, bibliophages probably know it.

Example: Michelle is a real bibliophage—she spends every second of her free time reading books.

The word bibliophage has been in use at least since the 1830s. It is formed from the Greek root biblio-, meaning “book” (as in bibliography), and -phage, meaning “thing that devours” (from the Greek phageîn, meaning “to eat”). This ending is often used literally, as in words like macrophage (a white blood cell that ingests microorganisms). Very rarely, the word bibliophage has been used to refer to a bug that literally eats the pages of books. (The term bookworm can also refer to a type of insect that feeds on books, especially their binding paste, such as the booklouse.)

But bibliophage is pretty much always used figuratively: a person who devours books—meaning they read them one after another. A bibliophage is a bibliophile (someone who loves books), but they don’t just love them, they feast on them. If you have a bibliophage in your life, you know they probably don’t go anywhere without a book—or several. When you ask them what they’ve been reading, they’ll list one book after another (you probably don’t need to ask—they’ll just tell you). Their bookcase is beyond full, and they have a stack of books they haven’t read yet, but that won’t stop them from acquiring more. When it comes to reading, a bibliophage is prolific.

What are some other forms of bibliophage?

• bibliophagous (adjective)
• bibliophagic (adjective)

What are some synonyms for bibliophage?

• bibliophile
• bookworm

What are some words that share a root or word element with bibliophage? 

• bibliomania
• bibliotheca
• bacteriophage
• mycophage
• bibliopegy

Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s probably bibliophages who are most likely to use the word bibliophage, especially when talking about how they feel about reading and books.

In my humble opinion words are sacrosanct. They hold power and magic. In the beginning there was the word and it was good. The written word has to be one of our greatest achievements of human kind. I must say I am a bit of a bibliophage.

— homelessfelongellin (@homelessfelon1) January 25, 2020

Karl Lagerfeld, bibliophile extraordinaire. “Practically a bibliophage, he is said to have torn the pages out of thick paperbacks as he read them.” https://t.co/BBEPUubeJx

— Lauren Mechling (@laurenmechling) November 25, 2019

Mortimer Adler in “How to Read a Book” calls this “marginalia,” and suggests this is akin to having a conversation with the author. Reading a book about reading may seem odd, but I highly recommend it. As an avid bibliophage, it changed the way I read. For the better 👍 pic.twitter.com/5LeZ5sMSWh

— The Baron Keeper von Alexander 🔶 (@nonsensetwice) July 28, 2019

Which of the following words is a synonym for bibliophage?

A. bibliophile
B. book lover
C. bookworm
D. all of the above