[word] philately 集邮

[word] philately 集邮

philately   \fuh-LAT-uh-lee\   (noun)

     : the collection and study of postage and imprinted stamps

: stamp collecting

Example sentence:

     Mark's been interested in philately since he was a kid,

so he was thrilled to learn that a huge postage stamp exhibition

was coming to town.

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 "philatelie"

(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.