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Chrestomathy

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Chrestomathy (/krɛsˈtɒməθi/ kres-TOM-ə-thee; from the Ancient Greek χρηστομάθεια “desire of learning” = χρηστός “useful” + μανθάνω “learn”) is a collection of selected literary passages (usually from a single author); a selection of literary passages from a foreign language assembled for studying the language; or a text in various languages, used especially as an aid in learning a subject.

In philology or in the study of literature, it is a type of reader which presents a sequence of example texts, selected to demonstrate the development of language or literary style. It is different from an anthology because of its didactic purpose.

Examples

  • Bernhard Dorn, A Chrestomathy of the Pushtu or Afghan language, St. Petersburg: 1847
  • Mencken, H. L., A Mencken Chrestomathy, His Own Selection of his Choicest Writing, New York: Alfred P. Knopf, 1949
  • Zamenhof, L. L., Fundamenta Krestomatio de la Lingvo Esperanto, Paris: Hachette, 1903
  • Edward Ullendorff, A Tigrinya Chrestomathy, Stuttgart: Steiner Werlag Wiesbaden GmbH, 1985.
  • Bilingual Greek-Latin Grammar, by Georgios Dimitriou, 1785, that contained personal observations, Epistles and Maxims, as well as biographies of notable men.
  • Rosetta Code, "a programming chrestomathy site," which "present[s] solutions to the same task in as many different [computer] languages as possible."
  • The Ibis Chrestomathy, dealing "solely with words that have a claim to naturalization within the English language."
  • References

    Chrestomathy Wikipedia