Question

Choose the most suitable ‘one word’ for the following phrase.
One who loves books
a. Bibliophobe
b. Bibliographer
c. Bibliophile
d. Bibliophagist

Answer 1

Hint: The suffix ‘phile’ added to any word denotes a love for something. For instance, ailurophile means a lover of cats.

Complete answer:

 In English, you can make your sentences more concise and brief if you can replace a group of words with another single word that means the same thing. This is known as one-word substitution.
Let us consider the options above and what they mean.
Option ‘a’- A bibliophobe is someone who is scared of and detests books and reading. The suffix ‘phobe’ denotes an aversion or hatred.
Option ‘b’ - A bibliographer is someone who composes a list of books written on a particular subject. In other words, bibliographers compose bibliographies.
Option ‘c’ - A bibliophile is used to refer to a person who loves books and reading a lot. Bibliophiles spend most of their time collecting books and reading them.
Option ‘d’- A bibliophagist is used to describe someone who loves to read rare books. This is an elitist hobby as everyone cannot afford rare books.
Now, let us consider the definition given in the question- One who loves books.
The scope of this definition can be attributed to bibliophiles as attested in the explanation above. Bibliophiles refer to a group of people who have an extreme love for reading and for books in general. Therefore, option ‘c’ is the correct answer.

Note: The word bibliophile is derived from two Greek words, biblion and philos, which mean books and loving respectively.