I had an extraordinary experience today to tour the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth. It was a phenomenal library, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area.

We were able to view (and even handle) books that were handwritten from the 1400s. It was truly amazing. One thing they said was that these were "deluxe" books, and that's where the word came from, "de lux." The particular book from the 1400s that he pointed to as being "deluxe" (and thus the word) was written in France, with the language being Latin. However, when I look up the word "deluxe" in etymology.com, it says it's from 1819. Since I don't have access to the online OED anymore, can someone please look it up to see what they say? Maybe it just didn't come to English until the 1800s?

I did some some wonderful middle English writing, too, including works of Chaucer.

I also learned a new phrase about books: double elephant folio. Indeed, they had Daniel Webster's copy of the double elephant folio first edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America.

De lux in Latin means "of light". No idea of what the connection is with the French luxe is, if any. Oxford says for "deluxe":

quote:

early 19th century: French de luxe, literally 'of luxury'

However, all books written in the 1400s were what we'd nowadays call "deluxe".

Deluxe is from the French de luxe 'of luxury'. De Lux in Latin means nothing (as it is ungrammatical), because the preposition de governs the ablative case, and 'of light' would be de luce. The 1819 date is when English borrowed the French phrase. French luxe comes from Latin luxus 'excess, indulgence, luxury, debauchery'. I am not aware of deluxe as a book or printing term.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
... from Latin luxus 'excess, indulgence, luxury, debauchery'.

And leachery, so the righteous among us best not read any deluxe editions of anything lest they sin and go to Hell.

quote:

De Lux in Latin means nothing (as it is ungrammatical) ... 'of light' would be de luce.

You're right of course I wondered about that but ignored the grammar.

Very interesting. Thanks, Z. I think Wordcrafters would love this library.