foolscap

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a traditional British size of writing or printing paper, historically about 13 by 16 inches before folding or cutting

   The clerk copied the statement onto a sheet of foolscap.

2. 2
   noun

   a sheet of that paper folded or cut in half, roughly comparable to modern legal-size paper

   Three pages of closely written foolscap lay beside the typewriter.

Probably named for a watermark showing a fool's cap that appeared on this kind of paper. The mark became associated with a standard sheet size, and foolscap remained a common term for writing paper in Britain and its former colonies even after modern international paper standards spread.

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