▪ I.album1|ˈælbəm|Pl. albums.[a. L. album a blank tablet for entries,subst.use of neut.sing.ofadj.alb-us white. At first used inEng.professedly as a Latin word, and so inflected: see in albo below, as we say in toto.]1.Rom.Antiq.A tablet on which the prætor's edicts and other public notices were recorded for public information; afterwards extended to other lists.1753ChambersCycl.Supp.s.v.,The high-priest entered the chief transactions of each year into an album, or table, which was hung up in his house for the public use.
1868SmithDict.Antiq.s.v.,The album was so called because it was either a white material, or a material whitened.
2.A blank book in which to insert autographs, memorial verses, original drawings, or other souvenirs. According to Johnson ‘a book in which foreigners have long been accustomed to insert the autographs of celebrated people.’1651Reliq. Wotton (1672) 30Was requested by Christopher Flecamore to write some sentence in his Albo.
Ibid.69In his Album of Friends after the German custome.
1652E. BenlowesTheoph.,Who in Loves Albo are enrol'd Unutterable Joyes behold.
1757ChesterfieldLett.319. IV. 87,I do not mean a German album, stuffed with people's names and Latin sentences.
1848ThackerayVan. Fair lxiii. (1853) 533Grignac..made caricatures of Tapeworm in all the Albums of the place.
3.‘A book at public places in which visitors enter their names.’ Webster. (This in England is called a Visitors' Book.)1775W. MasonGray (Jod.)I remember..to have seen at the convent of the Grande Chartreuse an album of this fashion; and was invited to insert my name in it, as a foreigner.
1822J. FlintLett.fr.Amer.294In the album kept at one of these[taverns]..a hundred folio pages had been written with names within five months.
4.A book for reception of photographic cartes and views, or of postage-stamps, crests, or other things which are collected and preserved; a scrap-book. Also attrib.1859All Y. RoundNo.30. 79An album full of photographs.
1878Paper &Print.Jrnl.xxv. 11A still greater novelty is an album containing twenty-four Welsh costumes.
1936C. J. WestBibliog. Pulp & Paper Making 612Changes in the composition of thick album paper and oiled paper.
1937E. J. LabarreDict.Paper 97/1Album papers and boards are cover papers, or double thick pasted board..intended for photographic albums.
5.attrib., passing into adj.Applied to verses of a sort or quality suitable for inclusion in an album (often with disparaging implication).1918V. WoolfWriter's Diary 7 Aug. (1953) 3I'm much impressed by the extreme badness of B's[Byron's]poetry... Why did they think this album stuff the finest fire of poetry?
1953C. Day Lewis inProc.Brit.Acad.XXXVII. 163Album verse that ranges between the inept and the perfunctory.
6.A long-playing gramophone record or a set of such records.1957Gramophone Apr. 427/2That he was too little appreciated in his lifetime makes this memorial album (another record is to follow) even more..important.
1963Oxford Mail 28 Jan. 6/6Many jazz album covers have little connection with the contents.
1967Times 16 Dec. (Advt.),A four record album with illustrated colour brochure.
▪ II.‖ˈalbum2 Obs.[L. album white.]1.Path.Leucorrhea.1527L. Andrewtr.Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters G v,Good agaynst that Album or whyte in women.
2.Rent paid in white money or silver.1691BlountLawDict.,Album, used for white Rent, or Rent paid in Silver.
1775Ash,Album (in old records) Rent paid in silver.
Add:3.album graecum|ˈgraɪkəm,ˈgriː-|[L. graecum, neut.sing.of graecus Greek], the excrement of dogs, hyenas, etc., after it has dried and whitened, formerly used medicinally.1607TopsellFoure-f. Beastes 189The dung of dogges (called by the Apothecaryes Album Græcum) because the white is best,..is verye profitable..against inflamations in the brests of Women.
1804SoutheyLet.5 Mar. (1965) I. 355,I have called him[sc.Malthus]a dog by implication—having mentioned his album græcum.
1877Encycl.Brit.VI. 353/1Buckland's conjecture that they were of fæcal origin, and similar to the album græcum or excrement of hyænas, was confirmed by Dr Prout.
