small papern.adj.
/ˈsmɔːl ˌpeɪpə/, U.S. /ˈsmɔl ˌpeɪpər/, /ˈsmɑl ˌpeɪpər/ Printing.
A. n.
Paper of the ordinary size, as distinct from large paper (see large paper n. at large adj., adv., and n. Compounds 4).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > paper > [noun] > sizes of
royal paper1497
small paper1497
sheet1510
demy1546
imperial1572
pot1579
quarto1580
grape1611
crown paper1620
foolscap1660
bastard1711
copy1712
crown1712
vigesimo-quarto1864
columbier1875
1497 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 128 j reame & vij quires of small paper.
a1671 T. Fairfax Short Mem. (1699) sig. K3v Every Gentleman upon Subscribing, shall Pay down in Part Twenty Shillings for One Book of the Small Paper, and Thirty Shillings for One of the Large Paper.
1725 E. Sawyer Mem. Affairs State I. Names of Subscribers The Right Hon. the Lord Viscount Townshend, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, two Copies, one large and one small Paper.
1894 Inland Printer May 126/1 When a large-paper book has nothing to recommend it over a copy on small paper except the distinction of a more limited issue, the publisher thereof should have a care that the distinction be made of value.
1907 Sessional Papers House of Lords 22/1 I cannot say that in an individual case such as you have put the Corporation might attach less importance to the thing printed on small paper than on big.
2009 M. Santini Impetus of Amateur Scholarship iv. 180 The editor claims..the book has been printed in two hundred copies (one hundred and seventy-five on small paper and twenty-five on large paper).
B. adj. (attributive).
Designating a sheet of small paper or a book printed on this.
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1708 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. 8 Apr. 101 3 small-paper Livys.
1872 Notes & Queries 25 May 434/1 I possess a copy of the second edition... It is printed with a different type,..and has the portrait like that described in the above-mentioned small paper copy.
1936 W. M. Sale S. Richardson 31 It was not until the autumn of 1742 that he began to see the need for publishing his second small paper edition.
1994 Stud. in Bibliogr. 47 153 Of the sixty-four copies with the final quire printed on small-paper sheets, six have the Pallas/Astraea ending and fifty-eight the reverse.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1497