ATHENAEUM noun (ath-uh-nee-uhm_

noun
1. a library or reading room.
2. an institution for the promotion of literary or scientific learning.
3. (initial capital letter) a sanctuary of Athena at Athens, built by the Roman emperor Hadrian, and frequented by poets and scholars.


Quotes

The back of his state-issued S.U.V. is stacked with notebooks filled with ideas and data culled from books and articles and conversations with nearly four hundred experts; it’s a kind of rolling athenaeum.
--*Tad Friend,*"Gavin Newsom, the Next Head of the California Resistance," The New Yorker, November 5, 2018


At the top of the main staircase, with patterned risers and leather-covered treads, a bedroom was turned into the Athenaeum, or classical library.
--*Julie Lasky,*"A Victorian Wonderland in Park Slope," New York Times, March 16, 2018



Origin

Athenaeum ultimately derives from Greek Athḗnaion, the name of the temple of Athena in ancient Athens where poets read their works. It entered English in the 1720s.