A reader asks what someone who loves words is called. Editor Emily Brewster responds:
Someone who loves words is called a logophile. Despite there being quite a few of us word-lovers, logophile is not common enough to find its way into most dictionaries. Logophile comes from two Greek roots--logos, meaning "speech, word, reason" and philos, meaning "dear, friendly"--and these roots have also played a part in other more common English words.
Logos is part of the history of the words analogous, apology, and logic. And philos gave us the noun combining form -phile, meaning "someone who likes something very much." In a dictionary like Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, you'll find many technical words that use this combining form. In this dictionary, just a handful of "-phile" words are common enough to gain entry, among them bibliophile and technophile.
