Thursday, July 12, 2012

What is "foolscap"?

According to the Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, foolscap is a term used to designate stationary.

Foolscap stationary measures from 12 by 15 inches up to 13-1/2 by 17 inches. The most common size is 13 by 16 inches, which is often folded to make pages of 8 by 13 inches. Originally it was a printing paper used in England and got its name from the ancient watermark of a fool's head and cap used to identify the paper. The earliest specimens of paper using the foolscap watermark date back to before the time of Shakespeare.

So, if you want to channel Shakespeare in your writing, try to find some foolscap to write on. It might be fun to use pen and paper, for those who only use a computer.

2 comments:

  1. I was fascinated with your book on Egyptian magic, but many people have written sensationalistic books just to boost their ego and get attention or make money off of trusting naive or innocent people. If an author wrote a pretentious or bogus book-that would be a very cruel, deceitful, and evil thing to do. Life is not a damn joke and I hope your revenge book is not a joke either. So, my pointed question to you is- does Egyptian revenge magic really work and can you give me some proof of this? Slot of people are trusting you and putting a lot of time and emotion into this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was fascinated with your book on Egyptian magic, but many people have written sensationalistic books just to boost their ego and get attention or make money off of trusting naive or innocent people. If an author wrote a pretentious or bogus book-that would be a very cruel, deceitful, and evil thing to do. Life is not a damn joke and I hope your revenge book is not a joke either. So, my pointed question to you is- does Egyptian revenge magic really work and can you give me some proof of this? Slot of people are trusting you and putting a lot of time and emotion into this.

    ReplyDelete