Nuts and Bolts: if the cap fits.

Long, long ago, when even I was young, there used to be a thing called foolscap.



It was a rather inconvenient size of sheet of paper.

What size was that?

Good question. If you were planning to print on it then it would probably be 220 x 340 mm (or 8.5 x 13.5 inches). If you were planning to write on it then it would have been 200 x 230 mm (8 x 13 inches). 

To make things even sillier, a full foolscap sheet was actually 340 x 430 mm (13.5 x 17 inch) - though I've never seen such a thing and don't know who used it, if anyone ever did.

Foolscap was used in Britain and the Commonwealth before paper sizes went international, though the earliest example of a piece of paper of that size was actually made in Germany in 1479. It probably wasn't called foolscap, though, because the foolscap watermark such paper used to feature wasn't known until the late 1500s.

It's said that the official records of the Rump Parliament were printed on paper with a foolscap watermark instead of the usual Royal Coat of Arms - but if you'll believe that...

Now, the paper size is said to be named after the watermark, but that doesn't help us much because we still don't know why the watermark was in that pattern. A foolscap sheet is miles to small to make a paper hat for anyone, except perhaps for a very small monkey. Perhaps opening a paper mill was seen as a foolish investment; perhaps it was the revenge of an underpaid or unrespected or betrayed man who made the paper-making frames.

There is one rather nice theory that the name is a form of folio capa, which means, more or less, main sheet. The idea is that a contract would be torn in two, and if there was a dispute about its terms then both pieces would have to be fitted together to prove it was the genuine article. 

Well, it'd be nice if it were true, wouldn't it.

Word To Use Today: foolscap. The Old French fol means mad, the Late Latin follis means empty-headed person, and before that it meant bellows.