Quires

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An assembly of sheets of paper, often gathered and folded
2. A group of 24 or sometimes 25 individual leaves that make up a part of a book
3. A collection of pages that are sewn or bound together for writing or printing purposes

Etymology: The word is the plural of "quire", and the surprise is that "quire" once had nothing to do with books. It comes from Latin "quaternus", meaning "fourfold", from "quater", "four times". A quire was a set of four sheets of paper folded in half, which made eight leaves, and that folded unit was the building block of a bound book. Medieval scribes and printers counted books in these gatherings, so the word for the count came to name the gathering itself. The word has a twin spelling that looks unrelated. "Quire" in the sense of a choir, a group of singers, comes from Old French "quer" and Latin "chorus", from Greek "khorós", meaning a company of dancers or singers. The two words are not related in meaning, but their modern spellings have merged, so readers meeting "quires" in a book history may need to check which sense is intended.

Synonyms: sheets, bundles, folios, packets