-mo, suffix
(məʊ)
The final syllable of terms derived from the abl. sing. masc. of L. ordinal numerals which are used to denote book sizes by the number of leaves into which a sheet of the paper on which the book is printed has been folded, e.g. duodecimo, sextodecimo, etc., and, by analogy, vicesimo-quarto, tricesimo-secundo, etc., which may be pronounced or written as 12mo, 16mo, 24mo, 32mo, etc., or twelvemo, sixteenmo, twenty-fourmo, thirty-twomo, etc.
| c 1716 T. Rawlinson Let. in T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1901) V. 178, I..would willingly know something of y{supr} Sylloge Epistolar., whither MSs. & unpublish'd, or a 12mo of Ao 1640. 1742 in N. & Q. (1855) 2 June 419 History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, &c., 12mo., in 2 vols., No. 1500, with alterations. 1776 in T. Harmer Observations Divers Passages Scripture (ed. 2) I. 484 (Advt.), The New Testament in Greek,..2 vol. 12mo. 1801 Schedule of Presswork Prices in E. Howe London Compositor (1947) iii. 98 Twelves: Pot, such as ladies and christian ladies table part, 6mo. 35 Pica ems wide, 26 long. 1810 Scale of Prices for Compositors' Work Art. 6, in Ibid. vi. 176 English and larger type, not less than 7s... English 12mo. to be paid not less than 10s. 6d. 1841 W. Savage Dict. Art. of Printing 798 A sheet of paper folded into twenty-four leaves, forty-eight pages, is termed twenty-fourmo. 1894 Amer. Dict. Printing & Bookmaking 548/1 Trigesimo-secundo, the bibliographical term for thirty-twomo; written shortly 32mo. 1927 R. B. McKerrow Introd. Bibliogr. i. iv. 34 Duodecimo, sextodecimo, vicesimo-quarto, and tricesimo-secundo, but often called ‘twelvemo’, ‘sixteenmo’, ‘twenty-fourmo’, and ‘thirty-twomo’. Ibid. ii. ii. 167 Both in a 16mo and a 32mo the watermark is, however, often absent. Ibid. 170 (heading) Twelve-mo by cutting. 1949 F. Bowers Princ. Bibliogr. Descr. v. 193 Sexagesimoquarto—64° or 64mo. 1952 J. Carter ABC for Bk.-Collectors 89 The principal sizes, with their common abbreviations, are: Folio{ddd}Quarto{ddd}Octavo{ddd}Duodecimo (12mo, pronounced twelvemo). Sextodecimo (16mo, pronounced sixteenmo). Vicesimo-quarto (24mo, pronounced twentyfourmo). Tricesimo-secundo (32mo, pronounced thirtytwomo). 1973 Collins's Authors & Printers Dict. (ed. 11) 406/2 Sixty-fourmo,..a book based on 64 leaves, 128 pages, to the basic sheet..abbr. 64mo (no point). |