[ad. L. anthologia, a. Gr. ἀνθολογία (f. ἄνθο-ς flower + -λογια collection, f. λέγ-ειν to gather), applied to a collection of poems. Cf. mod.Fr. anthologie. Later Gr. had also the homonym ἀνθολόγιον applied to a hymnal.]
1. A collection of the flowers of verse, i.e., small choice poems, esp. epigrams, by various authors; originally applied to the Greek collections so called.
1640. Chilmead, trans. Ferrand’s Love-Melanch., 334. This clause … is found … both in Diogenes Laertius, in his life, and also in the anthology.
1756. J. Warton, Ess. Pope (1782), II. § 14. 402. [The sepulchral inscriptions] … of Meleager on his wife, in the Greek Anthology.
1793. Ritson (title), The English Anthology.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 119. Anthologies are sickly things.
2. Extended to other literary collections.
1856. R. Vaughan, Mystics, I. Pref. 8. A kind of anthology from the writings of the leading mystics.
1878. Geo. Eliot, Coll. Breakf.-Party, 410. Anthology of causes and effects.
3. With some reference to the original meaning (in Greek) of a flower-gathering.
1755. Johnson, Anthology, a collection of flowers.
1822. De Quincey, Confess., Wks. V. 223. In the anthologies of earth … one flower beyond every other is liable to change, which flower is the countenance of woman.
4. A hymnal [= Gr. ἀνθολόγιον].
[1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Anthologion.]
1775. Ash, Anthology, in the Greek Church, a collection of devotional pieces.
† 5. A treatise on flowers. [A distinct use, on the analogy of zoology, ornithology, etc.: also in Fr.] Obs.
1678. Phillips, Anthologie, a treating of flowers, also a florid discourse. Ibid. (1706), Anthology, a Discourse or Treatise of Flowers, or of the Florist’s Art. [So in Bailey, etc.]
