quinternion

[kwin-tur-nee-uhn]

noun

Bookbinding.

1. five gathered sheets folded in two for binding together.

Word History and Origins

Origin of quinternion¹

1645–55; quint- five (< Latin quintus fifth ) + -ternion (extracted from quaternion )

Example Sentences

A gathering of five sheets making ten leaves was called a quinternion, and this, though it has yielded no modern word, was for generations such a popular form that quinterniones was sometimes used as a general expression for manuscripts.

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The book, when complete, consists of eight quaternions or eight leaves folded together and one quinternion or section of five sheets folded together, making in all seventy-four leaves, of which the first and last are blank.

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