Word Watching ~

"Where are the clerisy? They are people who like to read books... the clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books."

~ Robertson Davies, Toronto man-of-letters, from A Voice from the Attic (1960) Colombo's Concise Canadian Quotations, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, 1976.

Clerisy n. a distinct class of learned or literary persons.[apparently after German Klerisei, formed as Cleric]
The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1998

Word Watching

Philology n. 1. The branch of language that deals with the structure, historical development and relationships of a language or languages. 2. the branch of knowledge that deals with the linguistic, historical, interpretative and critical aspects of literature. philologist, philological, philologically, philologize.

[French philologie from Latin philologia love of learning from Greek]

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press Canada, 1998