book jargon

Bibliography

A list of works cited or otherwise relevant to a subject or other work; also refers to the history and study of books, writing, printing, binding, illustrating, and publishing

Apocryphon/a

Hidden or secret; used especially to non-canonical books of the Bible, such as the Shephard of Hermas or 1 Enoch

Apparatus

The means by which the document is presented for textual or critical study.

Hapax legomenon

a term of which only one instance of use is recorded

Black letter

A heavy typeface with angular outlines and thick, ornamental serifs

Block books

books printed from engraved blocks of wood, as in Flanders and Germany early in the 15th century.

Blurb

Highly laudatory material printed on the jackets of books or elsewhere

Boldface

A heavy typeface

Foolscap

A size of paper, typically 17 by 13.5 inches

Folio

A standard size sheet of paper folded in half; two leaves

Quarto

A standard size sheet of paper folded four times; four leaves

Octavo

A standard size sheet of paper folded eight times; eight leaves

Duodecimo

A standard size sheet of paper folded twelve times; twelve leaves

Bowdlerize

To expurgate a piece of writing by omitting material considered offensive or indecent, especially with regard to female modesty.

Breviora

A collection of brief writings or sayings

Broadsheet/broadside

A single large sheet of paper with printing on one side

Brochure

Originally, a small work with its pages stitched or wired, not bound; now, any relatively brief work regardless of binding

Bullet

A solid circle or large period used to supplement punctuation

Byline

the line that tells you who wrote an article

Cahier

A French word related to Quire, now generally applied to an exercise book, pamphlet, or fascicle.

Quire

Four sheets of paper or parchment folded to form eight leaves, as in medieval manuscripts; any collection of leaves in a medieval manuscript or book; or 24 (or 25) pieces of paper

Facsimile

A copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible.

Calligraphy

The art of beautiful writing

Canon

A standard of judgement; a criterion. Also applied to an accepted list of books

Catchword

A word so often repeated that it is identified with a person or object; also the word printed at the top of a column or page to indicate the first or last word on that page (like in dictionaries and encyclopedias)

Catena

Latin, "chain." A series of quotations used decoratively; especially common with quotations from the Bible

Chapbook

A small book or pamphlet, usually a single signature of sixteen or thirty-two pages, poorly printed and crudely illustrated, sold in England and America through the 18th century by peddlers or "chapmen."; dealt with all kinds of topics, especially travel tales, crime, strange occurrences, and tracts. In this century, miscellaneous small books and pamphlets.

Chrestomathy

A collection of choice passages to be used in the study of a language or a literature and, thus a kind of anthology

Codex

a manuscript book

Coffee table books

Large, expensive nonfiction books with many illustrations and appealing dust jackets; meant to be looked at rather than read

Colophon

A publisher's symbol or device placed on the title page or elsewhere near the beginning of the book; formerly placed at the end; includes title, author, printer, date, etc.

Column

One of two vertical sections that lie side by side on a page; also a feature article that appears periodically in a newspaper of magazine and is written by a single author

Commonplace book

A classified collection of quotations or arguments prepared for reference purposes

Compositor

A person who sets type by hand or machine and carries out other chores in printing

Concordance

An alphabetical index of all the words in a text or in the works of an author

Copy

Material either in manuscript or printed form that is to be set in type or duplicated by some other printing process

Copy text

The particular text of a work used by a textual scholar as with which to compare various editions and issues in an effort to arrive at the closest approximation of the autograph

Corrigendum/a

An item to be corrected

Credit line

In periodicals, the small print that identifies the photographer, service, or other source

Crotchet

Archaic term for [

Crux

A point of decision in textual editing

Cybertext

Texts other than the conventional narratives: hypertext fiction, computer games, and interactive texts on the internet

Dagger/Obelisk/Obelus/Long Cross

† A symbol used in printing for marginal references, cross-references, and other purposes; sometimes placed next to the names of the dead

Dateline

In newspapers, the line near the beginning that tells where and when the story was written

Dingbat

Any piece of type other than standard characters, numerals, and punctuation.

Dubia

Items of uncertain or disputed authorship

Dust jacket

A detachable paper cover on a book

Emblem

A graphic device of some sort that stands for a special meaning

Emendation

A change made in a literary text by an editor for removing error or supplying a suppressed correct reading that has been obscured or lost through textual inaccuracy or tampering.

Enumerative Bibliography

A listing of works of a particular country, author, printer, or type, or on a particular subject

Ephemera

Printed matter not intended to endure more than a short time; bookmarks, tax stamps, trade cards, business cards, etc.

Errata

An error in printing or writing

Foul copy

A manuscript that has been used for printing, bearing the marks of the proofreader, editor, and printer, as well as, frequently, the author's queries and comments.

Foul proof

Marked printer's proof from which corrections have been made

Gift Books

Miscellaneous collections of literary materials published annually in book form for purchase as gifts.

Gloss

An explanation of a difficult expression in a text; so, for instance, it may consist of a word or phrase in a more familiar phrase in the margins of a manuscript in another language. As a verb, it means to explain away or misinterpret something

Head

The top of a sheet, leaf, or page

Headnote

Material in the form of a note placed at the head of a page; the physical opposite of a footnote and usually without numbers, asterisks, or other symbols

Holograph

Something completely handwritten by the author

Hypertext

A body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not be conveniently presented on paper.

Incunabulum

Any book printed before 1501, in the last half of the 15th century

Index

An alphabetical listing of key words, phrases, or topics that includes the page numbers on which those items are found within a publication; originally referred to a table of contest

Index Expurgatorius

A list of passages that are to be expurgated from books that may be read by members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Index Librorum Prohibitorum

A list of books banned by the Catholic Church; established by the Council of Trent in 1559, ended in 1966 after VII

Gift books

Miscellaneous collections of literary materials published annually in book form for purchase as gifts.

Leading

the space between lines of text

Legend

An explanatory comment or list that accompanies paintings, graphs, charts, maps, or photographs

Lemniscus

A symbol (÷) used in antiquity for glosses and annotations

Letterpress

Used to distinguish the text of a book from the illustrative matter; printing directly with type rather than plates, blocks, etc. which are used for illustrations

Lexicon

A wordlist or dictionary; a vocabulary

Limited edition

An edition that has been limited to a certain, specific number prints.

Lunulae

Little moon or crescent; Erasmus's word for round parentheses

Binding

The outer part of a book

Gathering

A group of leaves in a book cut from a single sheet after it has been folded

Ghost

In bibliography, an item that finds its way on a list without actually existing

Ghostwriter

A writer who writes for, and in the name of, another person

Impression

All the copies of a book printed at one time without removing the type from the press; a printing

Imprimatur

Official approval to print a work; given by the Catholic Church.

Marginalia

Material written in the margins of a work

Masthead

A box near the top of the first page or elsewhere that gives the names and titles of important officers and other information, such as date of founding, staff, and other publisher information

News-book

Obsolete term for a small newspaper

Octapla

Eightfolds: eight versions of a text in parallel columns

op-ed

The page opposite the editorial page, which is usually devoted to opinion columns by writers other than the paper's editors

Opus

A creative work of any sort

Opuscule

a small or minor work