book

—bookless, adj. —booklike, adj.

/book/, n.

1. a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.

2. a number of sheets of blank or ruled paper bound together for writing, recording business transactions, etc.

3. a division of a literary work, esp. one of the larger divisions.

4. the Book, the Bible.

5. Music. the text or libretto of an opera, operetta, or musical.

6. books. See book of account.

7. Jazz. the total repertoire of a band.

8. a script or story for a play.

9. a record of bets, as on a horse race.

10. Cards. the number of basic tricks or cards that must be taken before any trick or card counts in the score.

11. a set or packet of tickets, checks, stamps, matches, etc., bound together like a book.

12. anything that serves for the recording of facts or events: The petrified tree was a book of Nature.

13. Sports. a collection of facts and information about the usual playing habits, weaknesses, methods, etc., of an opposing team or player, esp. in baseball: The White Sox book on Mickey Mantle cautioned pitchers to keep the ball fast and high.

14. Stock Exchange.

a. the customers served by each registered representative in a brokerage house.

b. a loose-leaf binder kept by a specialist to record orders to buy and sell stock at specified prices.

15. a pile or package of leaves, as of tobacco.

16. Mineral. a thick block or crystal of mica.

17. a magazine: used esp. in magazine publishing.

18. See book value.

19. Slang. bookmaker (def. 1).

20. bring to book, to call to account; bring to justice: Someday he will be brought to book for his misdeeds.

21. by the book, according to the correct or established form; in the usual manner: an unimaginative individual who does everything by the book.

22. close the books, to balance accounts at the end of an accounting period; settle accounts.

23. cook the books, Informal. See cook (def. 10).

24. in one's bad books, out of favor; disliked by someone: He's in the boss's bad books.

25. in one's book, in one's personal judgment or opinion: In my book, he's not to be trusted.

26. in one's good books, in favor; liked by someone.

27. like a book, completely; thoroughly: She knew the area like a book.

28. make book,

a. to accept or place the bets of others, as on horse races, esp. as a business.

b. to wager; bet: You can make book on it that he won't arrive in time.

29. off the books, done or performed for cash or without keeping full business records: esp. as a way to avoid paying income tax, employment benefits, etc.: Much of his work as a night watchman is done off the books.

30. one for the book or books, a noteworthy incident; something extraordinary: The daring rescue was one for the book.

31. on the books, entered in a list or record: He claims to have graduated from Harvard, but his name is not on the books.

32. the book,

a. a set of rules, conventions, or standards: The solution was not according to the book but it served the purpose.

b. the telephone book: I've looked him up, but he's not in the book.

33. throw the book at, Informal.

a. to sentence (an offender, lawbreaker, etc.) to the maximum penalties for all charges against that person.

b. to punish or chide severely.

34. without book,

a. from memory.

b. without authority: to punish without book.

35. write the book, to be the prototype, originator, leader, etc., of: So far as investment banking is concerned, they wrote the book.

v.t.

36. to enter in a book or list; record; register.

37. to reserve or make a reservation for (a hotel room, passage on a ship, etc.): We booked a table at our favorite restaurant.

38. to register or list (a person) for a place, transportation, appointment, etc.: The travel agent booked us for next week's cruise.

39. to engage for one or more performances.

40. to enter an official charge against (an arrested suspect) on a police register.

41. to act as a bookmaker for (a bettor, bet, or sum of money): The Philadelphia syndicate books 25 million dollars a year on horse racing.

v.i.

42. to register one's name.

43. to engage a place, services, etc.

44. Slang.

a. to study hard, as a student before an exam: He left the party early to book.

b. to leave; depart: I'm bored with this party, let's book.

c. to work as a bookmaker: He started a restaurant with money he got from booking.

45. book in, to sign in, as at a job.

46. book out, to sign out, as at a job.

47. book up, to sell out in advance: The hotel is booked up for the Christmas holidays.

adj.

48. of or pertaining to a book or books: the book department; a book salesman.

49. derived or learned from or based on books: a book knowledge of sailing.

50. shown by a book of account: The firm's book profit was $53,680.

[bef. 900; ME, OE boc; c. D boek, ON bok, G Buch; akin to Goth boka letter (of the alphabet) and not of known relation to BEECH, as is often assumed]

Syn. 39. reserve, schedule, bill, slate, program.

Ant. 39. cancel.

* * *

I

Written (or printed) message of considerable length, meant for circulation and recorded on any of various materials that are durable and light enough to be easily portable.

The papyrus roll of ancient Egypt is more nearly the direct ancestor of the modern book than is the clay tablet; examples of both date to с 3000 BC. Somewhat later, the Chinese independently created an extensive scholarship based on books, many made of wood or bamboo strips bound with cords. Lampblack ink was introduced in China с AD 400 and printing from wooden blocks in the 6th century. The Greeks adopted the papyrus roll and passed it on to the Romans. The parchment or vellum codex superseded the papyrus roll by AD 400. Medieval parchment or vellum leaves were prepared from the skins of animals. By the 15th century, paper manuscripts were common. Printing spread rapidly in the late 15th century. Subsequent technical achievements, such as the development of offset printing, improved many aspects of book culture. In the late 1990s, downloadable electronic books became available over the Internet.

II

(as used in expressions)

Book of Changes

book club

Book of Common Prayer

Book of Kells

Book of the Dead

comic book

Domesday Book

Godey's Lady's Book

International Standard Book Number

Mormon Book of

Revelation Book of

Book of Brightness

Book of Splendour

Book of the Law

Mendele the Book Peddler

Four Books

* * *

▪ publishing

 published work of literature or scholarship; the term has been defined by UNESCO for statistical purposes as a “non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages excluding covers,” but no strict definition satisfactorily covers the variety of publications so identified.

      Although the form, content, and provisions for making books have varied widely during their long history, some constant characteristics may be identified. The most obvious is that a book is designed to serve as an instrument of communication—the purpose of such diverse forms as the Babylonian clay tablet, the Egyptian papyrus roll, the medieval vellum or parchment codex, the printed paper codex (most familiar in modern times), microfilm, and various other media and combinations. The second characteristic of the book is its use of writing or some other system of visual symbols (such as pictures or musical notation) to convey meaning. A third distinguishing feature is publication for tangible circulation. A temple column with a message carved on it is not a book nor is a sign or placard, which, though it may be easy enough to transport, is made to attract the eye of the passerby from a fixed location. Nor are private documents considered books. A book may be defined, therefore, as a written (or printed) message of considerable length, meant for public circulation and recorded on materials that are light yet durable enough to afford comparatively easy portability. Its primary purpose is to announce, expound, preserve, and transmit knowledge and information between people, depending on the twin faculties of portability and permanence. Books have attended the preservation and dissemination of knowledge in every literate society.

      The papyrus roll of ancient Egypt is more nearly the direct ancestor of the modern book than is the clay tablet of the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites; examples of both date from about 3000 BC.

      The Chinese independently created an extensive scholarship based on books, though not so early as the Sumerians and the Egyptians. Primitive Chinese books were made of wood or bamboo strips bound together with cords. The emperor Shih Huang (Shihuangdi) Ti attempted to blot out publishing by burning books in 213 BC, but the tradition of book scholarship was nurtured under the Han dynasty (206 BC to AD 220). The survival of Chinese texts was assured by continuous copying. In AD 175, Confucian texts began to be carved into stone tablets and preserved by rubbings. Lampblack ink was introduced in China in AD 400 and printing from wooden blocks in the 6th century.

      The Greeks adopted the papyrus roll and passed it on to the Romans. The vellum or parchment codex, which had superseded the roll by AD 400, was a revolutionary change in the form of the book. The codex introduced several advantages: a series of pages could be opened to any point in the text, both sides of the leaf could carry the message, and longer texts could be bound in a single volume. The medieval vellum or parchment leaves were prepared from the skins of animals. By the 15th century paper manuscripts were common. During the Middle Ages, monasteries (monastery) characteristically had libraries and scriptoria, places in which scribes copied books. The manuscript books of the Middle Ages, the models for the first printed books, were affected by the rise of Humanism and the growing interest in vernacular languages in the 14th and 15th centuries.

      The spread of printing was rapid in the second half of the 15th century; the printed books of that period are known as incunabula. The book made possible a revolution in thought and scholarship that became evident by the 16th century: the sources lay in the capacity of the press to multiply copies, to complete editions, and to reproduce a uniform graphic design along new conventional patterns that made the printed volume differ in appearance from the handwritten book. Other aspects of the printing revolution—cultural change associated with concentration on visual communication as contrasted to the oral modes of earlier times—have been emphasized by Marshall McLuhan.

      In the 17th century books were generally inferior in appearance to the best examples of the art of the book in the 16th. There was a great expansion in the reading public in the 17th and 18th centuries in the West, in part because of the increasing literacy of women. Type designs were advanced. The lithographic process of printing illustrations, discovered at the end of the 18th century, was significant because it became the basis for offset printing.

      In the 19th century the mechanization of printing provided the means for meeting the increased demand for books in industrialized societies. William Morris, in an effort to renew a spirit of craftsmanship, started the private press movement late in the 19th century. In the 20th century the book maintained a role of cultural ascendancy, although challenged by new media for dissemination of knowledge and its storage and retrieval. The paperbound format proved successful not only for the mass marketing of books but also from the 1950s for books of less general appeal. After World War II, an increase in use of colour illustration, particularly in children's books and textbooks, was an obvious trend, facilitated by the development of improved high-speed, offset printing.

* * *