Folio sb. and adj.

Also 7 follio. [a. L. foliō, abl. of folium leaf. Branch I proceeds from the med.L. use of the ablative in references, though in sense 2 the word may be a. It. foglio. In branch II the phrase in folio is either a. Lat. or a refashioning of the Italian in foglio. Cf. the use of in folio in Fr. both in sense 5 b and as sb. = sense 7.]

  A.  sb.

  I.  With reference to pagination.

  1.  A leaf of paper, parchment, etc. (either loose as one of a series, or in a bound volume) which is numbered only on the front.

  In the early instances the word may have been regarded as Latin. The front and back of the leaf were referred to as (folio) recto and verso; these words became Eng. as sbs.

1533.  T. More, Debell. Salem, Wks. 958/2. The .xlv. Chapiter of mine Apology beginnyng, Folio .243.

1548.  Staunford, Kinges Prerog., ix. (1567), 35 a. There it appeares folio .285. allso.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy. Turkie, Table. The first number signifieth the Chapter, the seconde, the Folio.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. xvii. marg. Place this between folio 202. and folio 203.

  2.  In Bookkeeping, The two opposite pages of a ledger or other account-book in which these are used concurrently; hence used for a page of a ledger in which one page serves for both sides of an account, and sometimes for a page of an account book generally.

1588.  Mellis, Briefe Instruct., C v. The number of the leafe or folio of your Creditor.

1622.  Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 364. In the Iournall, the Leaves or Folio of the Leidger are noted ouer a line in the Margine for the Debitor, and vnder the said line for the Creditor.

1849.  Freese, Comm. Class-bk., 109. The first division is a narrow column, for the figures which denote the Folio, where each account will be found in the Ledger.

  3.  The page-number of a printed book.

1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., II. 376. The Corrector and Compositer … examine … how the Folio’s of those Pages properly and numerically follow and succeed one another, Lest the Pages should be Transposed.

1841.  Savage, Dict. Printing, 231. When there is a running title, the folios are placed at the outside corners of the pages.

  4.  Law. A certain number of words (in Gt. Britain and Ireland 72 or 90, in U.S. generally 100) taken as a unit in reckoning the length of a document.

  Many legal documents of 16th c. are found to be written in pages of 12–15 lines, each containing 6 words. This is doubtless the origin of the above sense.

1836.  Sir H. Taylor, Statesman, xxiii. 170. Paying persons in the rank of life of law-stationers and their hired writers at the rate of so much per folio, instead of employing salaried clerks.

1848.  Wharton. Law Lex., Folio, a certain number of words; in conveyances, &c., amounting to seventy-two, and in Chancery proceedings to ninety.

  II.  With reference to size.

  5.  In folio, a phrase signifying ‘in the form of a full-sized sheet folded once.’ Orig. apprehended as a Latin phrase, used appositively or attributively; afterwards as consisting of an English prep. and sb.

1582.  Parsons, Def. of Censure, 148. I haue two editions in greeke: the one of learned Pagnine in folio, the other of Plantyne in octauo: both whiche make playnlie for me.

1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, I. ii. 192. Deuise Wit, write Pen, for I am for whole volumes in folio.

1644.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 89. That rare booke in a large folio which the great virtuoso and paynter Paull Rubens has published.

1679.  Bp. Hereford, Coll. Jesuits, 4. In one of these Houses there was a Study found, the Door thereof very hardly to be discovered, being placed behind a Bed, and plaistred over like the Wall adjoining, in which was found great store of Divinity Books, and others, in Folio and Quarto, and many other lesser Books, several Horse-loads, (but they are not yet brought to me, it being Christmas Holy-days, but they remain in a safe hand) many whereof are written by the principal learned Jesuits.

1763.  W. Massey, Orig. of Lett., II. 59. In the year 1668, he [Edward Cocker] published his England’s Penman, exhibiting all the curious hands, (in use in England) engraved on 28 brass plates in folio.

1819.  Blackw. Mag., VI. Oct., 29/2. I asked her whether she would have it in folio, with marginal notes?

1837–9.  Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. iii. I. § 148. 250. The more usual form of books printed in the fifteenth century is in folio.

  b.  transf. and fig.; spec. in a full and loose dress. Obs. exc. dial.

1590.  Greene, Neuer too late (1600), 96. His lippes were of the largest sise in folio, able to furnish a Coblers shoppe with clowting leather.

a. 1613.  Overbury, A Wife, &c. (1638), 133. Many ride poast to Chandlers and Tobacco shops in folio.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Love’s Cure, II. ii.

1630.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Jack-a-Lent, 114/1. When a mans stomacke is in Folio, and knowes not where to haue a dinner in Decimo sexto.

1651.  Lilly, Chas. I., 115. The scorns and slights he had used formerly to Elliott and others, he saw now returned upon himselfe in Folio.

1670.  Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 7. For the first, towit, Evils of body, it [Rome] hath its Hospitals, and those many, and many of those are Hospitals in folio.

1698.  Vanbrugh, Prov. Wife, V. (1710), 95. The news is, that Cuckuldom in Folio, is newly printed: and Matrimony in Quarto, is just going into the Press.

1828.  Carr, Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), 159, s.v. ‘In full folio,’ in full dress; probably a corruption of foliage.

  6.  A sheet of paper when folded once. Also, † such a sheet used for a specific purpose.

1616.  Bullokar, Folio, a sheete or large leafe of paper.

1691.  Evelyn, Diary, 16 April. Severall folios of dried plants, and one which had about 80 severall sorts of ferns, and another of grasses.

1710.  Addison, Tatler, No. 216, ¶ 5. To his Daughter Susanna, being his only Child, I bequeath my

1876.  J. Gould, Letter-press Printer, 40. Folio denotes a sheet of paper folded into two leaves, making four pages.

  7.  A volume made up of sheets of paper folded once; a volume of the largest size.

1628.  Earle, Microcosm, A Critic (Arb.), 57. He is one that makes all Bookes sell dearer, whilst he swels them into Folio’s with his Comments.

1713.  Swift, Frenzy J. Dennis, Wks. 1821, XIII. 211. The gentleman … let drive at us with a vast folio, which sorely bruised the shin of Mr. Lintot.

1826.  Scott, Woodst., iii. Tomkins cast an eye of careless regard upon these subjects of female occupation, then stepped into the farther window, and began to turn the leaves of a folio, which lay open on the reading-desk, apparently with some interest.

1867.  Stubbs, Benedict’s Chron., I. Preface, p. xxiv. It [the other manuscript] is a small folio, written in double columns, in a variety of equæval hands.

  transf. and fig.  1659.  D. Pell, Impr. Sea, 286. The little decimo sextos … the small fish … as well as … the great folios of the Whale, and Elephant.

1813.  Byron, Jrnl., 16 Nov., in Moore, Life (1833), I. 541. I once travelled three thousand to get among silent people; and this same lady writes octavos, and talks folios.

1885.  Pall Mall G., 25 July, 3/2. The London police—those folios in dark blue, lettered, and uniform.

  b.  attrib. and Comb.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 529, 6 Nov., ¶ 1. In an Assembly of the Learned, I have seen a Folio Writer place himself in an Elbow-chair, when the Author of a Duo-decimo has, out of a just Deference to his superior Quality, seated himself upon a Squabb.

1849.  Sir J. Stephen, Eccl. Biog. (1850), II. 37. From the recesses of the library in Red Cross Street they lower, in the sullen majority of the folio age, over the pigmies of this duodecimo generation—the expressive, though neglected monuments of occurrences, which can never lose their place, or their interest, in the history of theological literature.

1879.  Dowden, Southey, iii. 78. He received from his Lisbon collection precious boxes folio-crammed. ‘My dear and noble books! Such folios of saints! dull books enough for my patience to diet upon, till my flock be gathered together into one fold.’

  B.  adj.

  1.  Formed of sheets or a sheet folded once; of the largest size; folio-sized. Often following the sb.; cf. A. 5.

1597–8.  Bp. Hall, Sat., II. i. 27.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xi. 404. We may see small Pocket-Bibles, and a great Folio-Alchoran.

1680.  Evelyn, Diary (1850), II. 147. A folio MS. of good thickness, being the several exercises, as Themes, Orations, Translations, &c. of King Edward VI., all written and subscribed by his own hand.

1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., II. 231. If it be a large Folio Page, or a Broad-side he has Tyed up, he cannot take that into his Hands, because it is too broad for his Grasp.

1728.  Pope, The Dunciad, I. 156.

1802.  Dibdin, Introd. Classics, 26. There are some FOLIO editions of this beautiful work, which are now become exceedingly rare.

1808.  Scott, Autobiog., in Lockhart, Life, i. I remember writing upwards of 120 folio pages with no interval either for food or rest.

1870.  Dickens, E. Drood, ii. Even when the sun shines brilliantly, it seldom touches the grand piano in the recess, or the folio music-books on the stand.

Mod.  A history in ten volumes folio.

  fig.  1622.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Water-cormorant, Separatist, 21.

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), I. 366, ‘Stanzas Written in Lady Myrtle’s “Boccaccio.”’

  2.  Printing and Stationery. (See quots.)

1871.  Amer. Encycl. Print., Folio Post.—A flat writing-paper, usually 17 by 22 inches.

1888.  Jacobi, Printer’s Vocab., Folio chase.—A chase with one bar only. Ibid. (1890), Printing, ii. 32. In the wooden kinds we have slip, octavo, quarto, and folio galleys. Ibid., 42. These chases are often divided or subdivided into folio or quarto by means of cross-bars.