Foolscap? How did that name come about?

Question

A4 sized paper is called Foolscap. I mean FOOLS CAP? How did that name come about? I always wondered. Could anyone tell me?

Answer 1

Foolscap is bigger than A4. Back in the days of paper sizes, octavo, quarto , foolscap etc. before the A numbers.,,, A foolscap sheet if rolled into a cone would make the traditional dunces cap.

Answer 2

Foolscap was named after the fool's cap and bells watermark commonly used from the fifteenth century onwards on paper measuring (from Wikipedia - Why didn't you look there?)

It is one of the old imperial paper size measurements. They all had strange names. As near as I can remember:-

Demy - 18 x 22-1/2 inches
Medium - 18 x 23 inches
Royal - 20 x 25 inches
Crown - 20 x 30 inches
Elephant - I forgot the size

Half sizes had folio added on to the end of the name.

Answer 3

It has nothing to do with Dunces caps, this is about the 8th or 9th site that tells similar story...

Quote:

On the bright side, those bells will make
them easier to track down after the crash.

Dear Word Detective: Where does the word "foolscap" come from? It seems an unlikely name for a paper size. -- Julia Fractal, via the internet.

Yes, it does, but I rather like it. It certainly beats such awkward designations as "eight and one-half by eleven," or that irrepressibly romantic European invention, "A4." I think we ought to make an effort to develop more inventive, mellifluous names for our technological gizmos. Then again, come next January we'll all be writing on cave walls, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

Just kidding, of course. Y2K is your friend. Speaking of things that need nicer names, this "Y2K" business could use some work. Why not call it R2D2? Nobody doesn't like Star Wars, right? Or maybe "Pooh Two."

Onward. "Foolscap" is indeed the name of a particular size of writing or printing paper, although today you're more likely to encounter the term in a historical novel than in an office supply catalog. According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, foolscap writing paper measures 13 1/4 by 16 1/2 inches, and foolscap printing paper (don't ask me why this is different) is 13 1/2 by 17 inches.

Foolscap has been around for a long time, probably since either the 15th or 16th century. The original foolscap paper was easily recognized because it bore the distinctive watermark of -- drum roll, please -- a "fool's," or court jester's, cap. A fool's cap, once standard issue for jesters or "royal fools" in many European courts of the Middle Ages, is a multicolored hat festooned with bells hanging on conical strips of fabric. Although these hats have recently reappeared, worn by the famous "Motley Fool" duo of investment advisors, fool's caps are still not nearly as popular on Wall Street as they ought to be.

I'm not sure whether anyone is still producing paper in the standard foolscap size, but today we use the term as a fancy synonym for writing paper of any large size. And anyway, even if someone were still making "real" foolscap, it almost certainly wouldn't fit in our laser printers.

Answer 4

Foolscap was named after the fool's cap and bells watermark commonly used from the fifteenth century onwards on paper measuring 17 × 13½ inches (432 × 343 mm) or a subdivision of this into halves, quarters and so on. The earliest example of such paper that is firmly dated was made in Germany in 1479.

Unsubstantiated anecdotes suggest that the watermark was introduced to England in 1580 by Sir John Spielmann, a German who established a papermill at Dartford, Kent. Apocryphally, the Rump Parliament substituted a fools cap for the royal arms as a watermark on the paper used for the journals of parliament.

Answer 5

According to the manual of The British Stationery and Office Products Association
'The original idea behind the use of the watermark, which seems to date from the fourteenth century, was apparently the desire for a characteristic mark for distinguishing purposes and, as each papermaker had moulds of a particular size, the watermark eventually became associated with that size. In many cases, although the design had fallen in to disuse, its name remained as a size.'
Apart from the cap and bells which became foolscap some of the sizes derived from watermarks are
Royal - Royal hand
Post - Post horn
Crown - Crown
Pot - Tankard

Some of our older customers still refer to DL envelopes as foolscap. They were actually slightly narrower and wider, 4 x 9 inches and the paper was folded into four sections to fit in them. In the stationery & print trade a half sheet of foolscap was known at sixmo (this is a variable size in book making).

Answer 6

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Foolscap? How did that name come about?
A4 sized paper is called Foolscap. I mean FOOLS CAP? How did that name come about? I always wondered. Could anyone tell me?

Answer 7

Just to add to the excellent answer given by a previous writer a quote from "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology" as follows:-
cap of a professional fool: folio paper of a kind that orig. bore a watermark representing a fool's cap. XVII Century.
DB

Answer 8

This is a great story,

We get European paper, and the technique to manufacture it from the Arabs. The paper invented by Tai-Sa-Lun in China was a thin one sided plant fibre material. What we now term European style paper perhaps developed by the Western part of the Chinese empire to use rags where there were no bast fibres to make paper, and these paper makers were captured in 760 AD at the battle of Tallas.

The Arabs developed the material into a standard product, with names like the Caliph, the General, the Diplomat, to denote the different sizes. when Paper making arrived in Europe via Moorish Spain (1100 Xaivia) and Arabic influenced Kingdom of Naples (1200 Fabriano) they kept the same style of names, with the larges sheet being the 'king'.

Thus in English, the paper sizes were, from the smallest,

Pott (15½ × 12¼ at 10lbs per ream [500 sheets]) used for flyers in Printing, The courts used a version called Brief: 13" X 16" with its laid lines in the opposite direction to allow it to be folded horizontally easier.

Crown (20 × 15 at 10 lbs per ream) used for printing government and court publications. A non government version of this was called Copy, used for small books. Anothe version, Post was created (19 × 15¼) with only 7 lbs per ream, for letters.

Demy (22½ × 18) used for printing books, a Short Demy (20½ × 14) was used for sheet music. This paper was 26lbs per ream in weight.

Royal (25 × 20) had the full coat of arms of the monarch, and was the largest size of paper for a long time.

When new wire making machines were invented, they could produce larger sheets of paper, thus the victorians made larger and larger sheets

Antiquarian 52½ × 30½ 236lbs per ream
Double elephant 39½ × 26½ Largest size in which writing paper was made. 140lbs per ream
Atlas 33 × 26 100lbs per ream, or Columbier
Elephant 28 × 23 72lbs per ream
Imperial 29½ × 21½

but back to Oliver Cromwell, when the Parlimentarian army siezed control of Parliment back from the King in 1640, they decided that the royal crown on thiewr paper was not wanted any more, so asked for it to be removed.

Watermaks, well to be correct, they are termed wire marks, were an early form of anti counterfiet device, thus the papermakers wanted to know what to replace it with, and it is reputed that Oliver Cromwell, replied, replace that fools crown, with a fools cap - a jesters head dress, and thus foolscap paper was invented - the papermakers made it 16½ × 13¼ - slightly smaller than the original crown, because the same parliment also voted to reduce the margins of government publications to reduce waste.

However, the story of this exchange may well be political spin doctoring, as the symbol of a foolscap had been in use as a watermark in Germany for about a 100 years prior to the English Civil War. Indeed it is suggested that in 1580 by Sir John Spielmann, a German who established a papermill at Dartford, Kent - introduced the paper size to England.

The Rump Parliament in 1649, substituted an obscure but exsisting fools-cap for the royal arms as a watermark on the paper used for the journals of parliament. The Crown paper used up to this date had an heraldic watermark of the entire coat of arms for security. The opportunity to score a political goal or two was not missed by the Rump Parliament, so the story was spread.

However, the symbol is a powerful one. In societies where the Freedom of Speech was not recognized as a right, the court jester - precisely because anything he said was by definition "a jest" and "the uttering of a fool" - could speak frankly on controversial issues in a way in which anyone else would have been severely punished for, and monarchs understood the usefulness of having such a person at their side.

In Germany today, you can still find Till Eulenspiegel - a folkloric hero dating back to medieval times - ruling each year over Fasching or Carnival time. Tradition has it that he was born in Kneitlingen - Lower Saxony, But it was the neighbouring Papermaking mills of the low countries region who adopted the watermark during the time they declared independence from Habsburg Spain (1580's). The Dutch used the symbol 'Pro-Partia' which became Brittania, via William of Orange, and the symbol for Parlimentary papers after foolscap was abandoned.

Answer 9

It was in use before 1784
From 1784 writing paper, like all other types was heavily taxed, and the sizes of writing paper were set out in new schedules [Acts (1784)]. The following sizes and types were available (largest first): Imperial, Super ROYAL, ROYAL, Medium, DEMY PAPER, Thick post, Thin post, Small post, FOOLSCAP PAPER, POT PAPER.

From: 'Wreath - Writing paper', Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820 (2007). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=58916. Date accessed: 28 September 2007.

Answer 10

It's weird isn't it! I was going to say exactly what 'dels replies' said, so instead I'll just comment on sizing in general...

I can't understand why paper is different sizes in different countries. I've just moved over to Canada and here they have 'letter' sized paper and envelopes. How weird is that!!! The paper is slightly shorter than foolscap, and the envelopes are long and slim (not like me!!!!).

Answer 11

In 15th century the rulers use a certain kind of paper apart from parchment which were available for pastor-sectors. To make the obvious distinction between two qualities the rulers use a "watermark" on the paper and since jestor tradition was pretty much in vogue in that period and some of the jestors also perform work of messenger, the paper got the mark with a cap with bells dangling. This very colourful cap with bell became a trademark of Jestor or Fools. Eventually, the paper got its nomenclature as "Foolscap"; and term got its place indefinitely.

Writers of quality like Sir Arthur Conon Doyle used this term in their writing. He mentioned like, "Out of the envelope he took a half-sheet of "foolscap" paper folded into four" in "Hound of the Baskervilles"....and Lucy Maud Montegemery in "The Golden Road" - "We'll just have to write it out--we can buy foolscap from the teacher."