album

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An album (from Latin: albus white; Pl .: albums ) is a book with blank pages, originally for entering lists, directories and similar related things and facts, in today's everyday life mostly for entering other records. Furthermore, an album is an empty collecting container in book form, in which things that belong together are arranged for collecting purposes. In the field of music , a music album is a collection of several music tracks on one sound carrier.

etymology

The term album goes back to ancient Rome , where plaster of paris-whitened wooden panels ( album = 'white; the white') were publicly exhibited with black writing in order to make things of general interest visible. This practice is supposed to have been practiced originally by the Pontifex Maximus with the announcement of important events of a year and certain lists of names and which were later transferred to offices that published ordinances in this way. The expression came into German as a foreign word with the meaning in the 16th century . From the 17th century onwards, the word album referred to any book with white, i.e. blank sheets for records. After that, the meaning 'collection, memorial book' became common.

The origin of the term album as a music album is in English in the time of the shellac records , a forerunner of today's record . Shellac only had a limited recording capacity of about four minutes, so compilations of titles in the form of an album (clip-in album) with several such records were produced. With the introduction of the long-playing record , it became possible to press such compilations onto one record, but the original name was retained. The expression album for a music record was first used in 1951. It was adopted into German in later decades, was originally a synonym for long-playing record , and today also refers to other sound carriers with recordings of this kind.

Album shapes

Basically, an album is an empty book-shaped object that is supposed to be filled with certain similar things. In a modern design, it can be books with blank pages, scrapbooks of various types or books and albums with preprinted forms. As an item for collectors, a distinction is made with regard to the type of storage in addition to the empty albums without appliqués, the slip-in albums with the purpose of appropriately designed slots or compartments and the adhesive albums in the appropriate design.

Scrapbooks

In its original form as a blank book in the scholarly environment in the German-speaking world of the 16th century albums existed for entering autographs of friendly people, the so-called album Amicorum, long considered pedigree lived. Closely related to this are the poetry album that can still be found today , in which poetic verses are entered by friends, and, as a more modern version, the friendship book . A rarer version is the autograph book, a small book with blank pages for collecting autographs of famous personalities.

The traditional photo album , into which photographs are glued or attached with photo corners, is still widely used today as a kind of blank book for collecting purposes. Formerly as an adhesive album, today generally designed as a clip-in album, the stamp album is available empty or with preprinted forms. Coin albums are also provided for insertion . There are other scrapbooks for collecting stickers with various motifs.

Music albums

In the music industry, the term album for a "collection" of pieces of music on a record that has been adopted into German has become common in the English-speaking world . An album is therefore an edition of several pieces of music on one sound carrier. Such a music release can also be in the form of a double album or - rarely - a triple album .

Web links

Wiktionary: Album  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved September 8, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Dudenredaktion (ed.): The dictionary of origin. Etymology of the German language. 4th, revised edition = Duden Volume 7. Dudenverlag, Mannheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-411-04074-2 . - Etymological dictionary of German , developed under the direction of Wolfgang Pfeifer, 7th edition, dtv, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-423-32511-9 . - Smart. Etymological dictionary of the German language , edited by Elmar Sebold, 24th, revised and expanded edition, Berlin: de Gruyter 2002 (CD-ROM).
  3. ↑ Dudenredaktion (ed.): The dictionary of origin. Etymology of the German language. 4th, revised edition = Duden Volume 7. Dudenverlag, Mannheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-411-04074-2 .