The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chrestomathy \Chres*tom"a*thy\, n. [Gr. ?; ? useful + ?, ?, to learn.] A selection of passages, with notes, etc., to be used in acquiring a language; as, a Hebrew chrestomathy.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"collection of literary passages," 1774, from French chrestomathie, from Latinized form of Greek khrestomatheia "desire of learning; book containing selected passages," lit. "useful learning," from khrestos "useful" (verbal adjective of khresthai "to make use of;" see hortatory) + manthanein "to learn" (see mathematic). Related: Chrestomathic.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A collection of written passages, used to learn an unfamiliar language. 2 A collection of choice passages from an author or authors.(reference-book last = Mencken first = H. L. title = A Mencken Chrestomathy publisher = Vintage Books year = 1982)
Wikipedia
Chrestomathy ( ; from the Ancient Greek “desire of learning” = “useful” + “learn”) is a collection of choice literary passages, used especially as an aid in learning a subject.
In philology or in the study of literature, it is a type of reader which presents a sequence of example texts, selected to demonstrate the development of language or literary style. It is different from an anthology because of its didactic purpose.
Usage examples of "chrestomathy".
Barnes, who is going through a chrestomathy of head-shaking, throat-slitting, eye-bulging, and hand-waving.
Yama and Telmon had most of the major verses of the Puranas by heart, and were guided by Zakiel to read extensively in chrestomathies and incunabulae, but while Telmon dutifully followed the program Zakiel set out, Yama preferred to idle time away dreaming over bestiaries, prosopographies and mapsmost especially maps.
Yama and Telmon had most of the major verses of the Puranas by heart, and were guided by Zakiel to read extensively in chrestomathies and incunabulae, but while Telmon dutifully followed the program Zakiel set out, Yama preferred to idle time away dreaming over bestiaries, prosopographies and maps—most especially maps.