Bookmanship

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Skill in, or appreciation of, the editing and production design of books; being a connoisseur of books; love of books. uncountable

    "As library school graduates appear only semiliterate in terms of the book as a physical, aesthetic object, such critics wonder what has happened to the role of bookmanship in library education."

  2. 2
    Skill in using books; profiting from one's reading; erudition. uncountable

    "1946 [2001] Holbrook Jackson The reading of books p.10 (University of Illinois Press, 2001) →ISBN Bookmanship is the art of adjusting literature to life."

Example

More examples

"As library school graduates appear only semiliterate in terms of the book as a physical, aesthetic object, such critics wonder what has happened to the role of bookmanship in library education."

Etymology

From bookman + -ship. Compare penmanship.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.