Kolophon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A distinctive emblem or device used by a printer or publisher to mark their products ; an inscription or note placed at the end of a manuscript or early printed book ; a concluding statement or section that provides final details
2. A symbol or design adopted by a printer as their identifying mark ; text written at the conclusion of a manuscript recording information about its production ; a closing statement or passage
3. The printed or embossed symbol representing a publisher's identity ; a colophon inscription recording details about a manuscript's creation at its end ; a final explanatory or summarizing section

Etymology: In ancient Greek, "kolophon" meant a summit or a finishing touch, the peak that completes something. It also named the city of Colophon in Asia Minor, and the city's name became a byword in Greek for an addition that spoils what came before rather than completing it. The printing sense came much later, when the word was borrowed into Latin and then the modern European languages. It came to mean a note at the end of a book giving details of its production, and later a publisher's emblem or device placed there. This German and Scandinavian spelling keeps the Greek shape more closely than English "colophon" does.

Synonyms: colophon, emblem, mark