Broadsheet is a compound of broad (Old English brād) + sheet (Old English scēte, 'cloth, sheet'), denoting a newspaper printed on large-format pages. The historical trail runs through brād in Old English and scēte in Old English. Morphologically, broadsheet is transparent: it is a compound of broad (Old English brād) + sheet (Old English scēte, 'cloth, sheet'), denoting a newspaper printed on large-format pages. Used as a noun, broadsheet now means "a large-format newspaper, traditionally one regarded as serious", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as broad and broadside. The modern word remains analyzable through its parts, which makes the semantic connection unusually direct.