combining form repr. Fr. timbre (-poste) postage-stamp [see TIMBRE sb.2], used for a short period to form terms relating to stamp-collecting; now superseded by PHILATELY and related words. Timbrology [-LOGY] = timbrophily; Timbromania [F. timbromanie], a craze or mania for collecting stamps; hence Timbromaniac, Timbromanist; Timbrophily [F. timbrophilie, Gr. φιλία love, friendship], stamp-collecting; PHILATELY; hence Timbrophilic a., Timbrophilist.
1864. Lewins, Her Majesty’s Mails, 265. It only remains to refer for a moment to the timbromanie or stamp mania.
1865. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 722. We hold timbromania to be just as sensible a pursuit as a taste for numismatics…. The timbromaniac … studies history.
1867. Philatelist, I. 2. Timbromania was its first designation. Timbrophily and Timbrology next had a short reign as a technical term, till Philately … has proved to be the right word. Ibid., 203. Timbrophilists would be a respectably large array.
1880. Bric-a-Brac, Oct., 2. A proof of the great profits made by timbromanists.
1891. Cornh. Mag., July, 36. Which he will dispose of to Western timbromaniacs.
