Paperback

How to spell paperback

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce paperback

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does paperback mean?

1. nounA book bound in a flexible paper cover rather than hard boards.

Paperback in a sentence

• She packed a paperback for the long flight to Madrid.

• The hardcover sold out, so he bought the cheaper paperback instead.

Where does paperback come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound joining 'paper' and 'back'. The word 'paper' descends from the Latin 'papyrus', the reed-like plant from which the ancient Egyptians made writing sheets, a term that itself came into Latin from Greek 'papyros'; English took it through Old French 'papier' in the medieval period. 'Back' is a native Old English word, 'bæc', meaning the rear or spine, and here it points to the binding side of the book. The compound 'paperback' arose in the twentieth century to describe a book bound in a flexible paper cover rather than stiff boards, becoming widespread once cheap mass-market editions flourished from the 1930s onward. Because both halves are ordinary, familiar words, the only spelling point to watch is that it is written solid, as one word, with no space or hyphen.

How the word is built

• paper (a thin sheet for writing)
• back (the spine or cover side) = a book with a flexible paper cover