literature

Meaning

Noun

• The body of all written works.
• The collected creative writing of a nation, people, group or culture.
• All the papers, treatises etc. published in academic journals on a particular subject.
• Written fiction of a high standard.

Origin

• From Middle English literature, from Old French littérature, from Latin literatura or litteratura, from littera, from Etruscan, from Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ ("tablet"). Displaced native Old English bōccræft.