My new favourite word …

One of the joys in sorting out all my late Mum’s stuff, was encountering so many interesting pieces of paper.  From 50yr old concert programmes to her autograph book; newspaper clippings on the value of prunes in your diet (yes, really) to all those postcards I described before, not to mention the notebooks monitoring her utility bills…  There is a word that links all of these items – and it is:

Ephemera

The word comes from the Greek ephemeros which means living for one day, and thus is defined as something short-lived. In the world of collectors, it has evolved to describe paper objects – newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, postcards, programmes – anything interesting and worth preserving rather than recycling.  I’ve come across some absolute gems lately – with all those wonderful but boring postcards, nostalgic autograph books and dinner dance high jinks, so I’m going to make a regular feature out of them starting next weekend.  Join me then for:

4 thoughts on “My new favourite word …

  1. Jenny says:

    I love that word too. I think I learned it from The Little Prince. Have you ever heard of Found Magazine? They are sort of all about ephemera. 🙂

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