quarto
Americannoun
PLURAL
quartos-
a book size of about 9½ × 12 inches (24 × 30 centimeters), determined by folding printed sheets twice to form four leaves or eight pages. 4to, 4°
-
a book of this size.
adjective
noun
-
Often written: 4to. 4°. a book size resulting from folding a sheet of paper, usually crown or demy, into four leaves or eight pages, each one quarter the size of the sheet
-
(formerly) a size of cut paper 10 in. by 8 in. (25.4 cm by 20.3 cm)
Etymology
Origin of quarto
First recorded in 1580–90; short for New Latin in quartō “in fourth” ( quartō, ablative singular of quartus “fourth”)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Before then, only 18 had been printed, in small paperback editions known as quartos.
From BBC
During his lifetime, quartos, small hand-held books sold on the street like paperbacks, were published, without his permission or approval, in pirated editions.
From New York Times
Or the notion that McCartney might very well have gleaned the phrase "let it be" from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" — but mercifully, not from the bad quarto, it turns out.
From Salon
While sifting through details of how in the course of history someone passed on an obscure quarto edition to someone else, it is hard not to think that the curse is on the reader.
From New York Times
A couple of these men, John Heminges and Henry Condell, come up with the wild idea to publish all of Shakespeare’s scripts in a handsome bound folio rather than the cheap unauthorized quartos then available.
From New York Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
