duodecimon.
/djuːəʊˈdɛsɪməʊ/ 1. The size of a book, or of the page of a book, in which each leaf is one-twelfth of a whole sheet: usually abbreviated 12mo.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > kind of book > size of book > [noun] > duodecimo > size
duodecimo1658
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words (at cited word) A book is said to be in Duodecimo, when it is of twelve leaves in a sheet.
1688 Catalogus Librorum Scoto-Britanni 137 English Miscellanies in Octavo and Duodecimo.
1759 W. H. Dilworth Life of Pope 47 His miscellanies in duodecimo.
1837 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe I. viii. 626 The book is in duodecimo, and contains but eighty-five pages.
1878 R. Browning La Saisiaz in La Saisiaz: Two Poets of Croisic 56 Some fifty leaves in duodecimo.
2. A book or volume of this size.
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society > communication > book > kind of book > size of book > [noun] > duodecimo
twelve1683
duodecimo1712
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 529. ¶1 The Author of a Duo-decimo.
1807 Director 2 348 Some of the duodecimos of our circulating libraries.
1851 T. Carlyle Life J. Sterling ii. x. 279 A tiny Duodecimo without name attached.
3.
a. attributive or adj.
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1781 W. Mason Let. 29 Mar. in Walpole's Lett. (1858) VIII. 18 (note) A hundred duodecimo pages.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1750 I. 109 I have in my possession a small duodecimo volume.
1808 L. Murray Eng. Gram. Illustr. I. Pref. 1 The last Duodecimo edition of his Grammar.
1837 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe I. iii. 343 The duodecimo division of the sheet.
1849 W. Irving Oliver Goldsmith (rev. ed.) xxx. 265 An abridgement in one volume duodecimo.
b. figurative. Applied to a person or thing of minute or diminutive size.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [adjective] > small of its kind
demi1418
young1550
minikin1566
dwarf-like1582
diminutive1602
minitive?1602
diminute1611
pocket1621
Lilliputian1726
duodecimo1780
toy1821
minified1841
junior1860
toy-sized1861
Lilliput1867
toyish1871
mini1963
1780 R. B. Sheridan School for Scandal ii. ii. 17 Lady Bab Curricle was taking the dust in Hyde Park, in a sort of duodecimo phæton.
1833 New Monthly Mag. 37 46 All the little monarchies and duodecimo princedoms.
1860 All Year Round 14 Jan. 283 He bent, and bowed, and touched his heart with his hand, like a little duodecimo Lord Chesterfield.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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