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bookish

bookish

10 6.5
A person who likes books and reading more than practical activities
  • adjective
  • /ˈbʊkɪʃ/
translation icon : estudioso
  • As a serious, bookish girl, I felt like an intruder and an outcast.

But yeah, question number six, what are some of your bookish pet peeves?

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Examples

  • The bookish student preferred discussing literature over attending parties with friends.

  • So... once upon a time... Once upon a time... there was a quiet, bookish girl who wrote poetry.

  • These ideas are for all of the bookish people in your life, people who love books.

  • And he, or she, seems to be the bookish type.

  • I would like you to deliver this tea bag to the bookish blonde over there.

  • Thank God for all the bookish boys and all the tomboyish girls out there.

  • I talked about it in hygiene class and attracted... a following of lonely, bookish girls.

  • Some of the listings were amusingly bookish in character: "Best Sellers," "Short Stories," "My Salad Days."

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Melville is the most bookish of writers, a tireless midnight student.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • And as an introvert and as I feel like a lot of bookish people tend to be introverts, it's really hard to meet people like us, I guess.

Synonyms

studious
vsbookish
9 3.9

Spending a lot of time reading and learning while working carefully

places preference on liking learning rather than practical matters
booky
vsbookish
  • UK
1 8.4

A person who likes to read and study a lot

leans more toward study than practical activity
readerly
vsbookish
7.7

Having a strong interest in books and their ideas

prefers study and learning rather than practical matters
bibliophilic
vsbookish
9.9

Having a strong love of books and often collecting them

focuses more on studying and learning than on practicality
bookful
vsbookish
8.6

Showing a lot of knowledge from books

emphasizes fondness for learning over practical skills
clerkly
vsbookish
  • Archaic
9.5

Showing a formal, bookish way of speaking or writing

is more about personal love of reading than occupational scholarship

Antonyms

507 2.6

About how something works in real life rather than in ideas

How Bookish

scholarly
  • Formal
47 5.6
bookish
10 6.5
studious
9 3.9

Surface Forms

bookish positive

Morphology

bookish = book (transparent) = book + ish

The adjectival suffix '-ish' attaches to 'book' to form an adjective meaning 'characteristic of or inclined to books/reading', which is directly inferable.

Etymology

Bookish comes from the parts book and -ish, where -ish means 'like' and appears in words such as foolish and childish. So bookish literally means 'like a book', a person who loves reading and prefers study to practical things.