pica1
/ˈpʌɪkə
/noun Printing
1A unit of type size and line length equal to 12 points (about 1/6 inch or 4.2 mm).For high resolution pictures, you will need to find a minimum photo size, in inches or picas, that your publisher wants for publication....
- You can control the property with percentages, as I have done here, or with ems, exs, inches, picas, centimeters, millimeters or pixels (px).
- Text that previously sat 12 picas wide now could fit in an 11 pica wide column.
1.1 [mass noun] A size of letter in typewriting, with 10 characters to the inch (about 3.9 to the centimetre).The paper should be typed in pica (10 characters per inch) or elite (12 characters per inch)....
- All matter to be reproduced by Xerography or a similar process shall be typed in pica type, double-spaced.
- If you are (still) using a typewriter, it doesn't matter whether your work is typed in pica (10 characters per inch) or elite (12 per inch) typeface.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Anglo-Latin pica (literally 'magpie'), commonly identified with a 15th-century book of rules about Church feasts, but no edition of such a pica printed in ‘pica’ type is known.
Rhymes
pica2
/ˈpʌɪkə/noun [mass noun] Medicine
A tendency or craving to eat substances other than normal food (such as clay, plaster, or ashes), occurring during childhood or pregnancy, or as a symptom of disease: adults with pica tend to be highly selective...
- This tendency was aggravated by apparent pica (an abnormal craving) that prompted him at various times to inhale the terpene camphor and to ingest other products containing terpenes, namely his oil paints and turpentine.
- Some pregnant women, for example, have stopped eating nonfood items after they were treated for iron deficiency anemia, a common condition among pregnant women with pica.
- Rarely, a person with iron-deficiency anemia may experience pica, a craving to eat nonfood items such as paint chips, chalk, or dirt.
Origin
Mid 16th century: modern Latin, from Latin, literally 'magpie', probably translating Greek kissa 'magpie', also 'false appetite'.