bookhouse

English

Etymology

From book +‎ house, probably as a calque of Old English bōchūs (“library, bookhouse”) (which became Middle English bochous (“library”), but then died out).

Noun

bookhouse (plural bookhouses)

1. A repository for books, a library; a store of books.

   Hyponyms: library, bookstore

   • 2022, original 1520-1546, Martin Luther, Luther & the State: Writings on Secularism, page 131:

     Finally, all those who love and desire that such schools and languages be established and maintained in the German lands should consider that no effort and expense be spared to provide good libraries or bookhouses, especially in the large cities that are well able to do so.

   • 1985, Charles Jencks, Towards a Symbolic Architecture, page 177:

     The overall mode of the bookhouses is the same as for the rest of the house: a Free-Style Classicism based on wood construction.

   • 1993, Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Science Fiction, page 541:

     There were bookhouses, along with stinktanks where you could drink up and listen to awful poetry about extinct animals.

   • 2020, Lian XiNingMou, Transmigration: To Be His Man, volume 2:

     The academy would have two bookhouses, one of which would teach the children who only wanted to know a few words, […]