catchword n : a favorite saying of a sect or political group [syn: motto, slogan, shibboleth]

English

Pronunciation

• /ˈkætʃwɜːd/

Noun

1. A word under the right-hand side of the last line on a book page that repeats the first word on the following page.
2. A word or expression repeated until it becomes representative of a party, school, business, or point of view.

Synonyms

• (word under right-hand side): guide word
• (word repeated to become representative): watchword

Catchword is also a name for a headword in a dictionary.

For the game show, see Catchword (game show).

A catchword is a word placed at the foot of a handwritten or printed page that is meant to be bound along with other pages in a book. The word anticipates the first word of the following page. It was meant to help the bookbinder (in the case of manuscripts) or the printer (in the case of printed books) make sure that the leaves were bound in the right order or that the pages were set up in the press in the right order. Catchwords appear in some medieval manuscripts, and appear again in printed books late in the fifteenth century. The practice became widespread in the mid sixteenth century, and prevailed until the arrival of industrial printing techniques late in the eighteenth century.

See also

• Catch-phrase

References

• De Hamel, Christopher. Scribes and Illuminators. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. 41.
• Gaskell, Gaskell. A New Introduction to Bibliography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. 52-53.
• McKerrow, Ronald B. An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. 82.
• Roberts, Matt T., and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

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