filatelie

1865, from French philatélie, coined by French stamp collector Georges Herpin (in Le Collectionneur de Timbres-poste, Nov. 15, 1864) from Ancient Greek φιλέω (philéō, “I love”) + ἀτέλεια (atéleia), the closest word he could find in Ancient Greek to the concept of "postage stamp", from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + τέλος (télos, “tax”). This word serves as a reminder of the original function of postage stamps, now often forgotten: the cost of letter-carrying formerly was paid by the recipient; stamps indicated it had been pre-paid by the sender, thus the letters were "carriage-free".

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• Hyphenation: fi‧la‧te‧lie

filatelie f (uncountable)

1. philately

• filatelistisch
• filatelist

filatelie f

1. plural of filatelia

From French philatélie.

filatelie f (uncountable)

1. philately