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And first, although there were more things in nature then words which did expresse them, yet even in these mute and silent discourses, to expresse complexed significations, they took a liberty to compound and piece together creatures of allowable formes unto mixtures inexistent
(printing)Alternative form of form(“type etc. secured in a chase”).
1978, David A. Bloestein, Introduction, John Marston, David A. Bloestein (editor), Parasitaster: Or, The Fawn, page 47,
Both these formes, with running titles intact, were retained to print sheet D of Q2.
1994, Jay L. Halio, Introduction, Jay L. Halio (editor), William Shakespeare, The First Quarto of King Lear, page 21,
Q2 was printed in twenty-two formes.
2011, Eugene Giddens, How to Read a Shakespearean Play Text, page 41:
In casting off, the printing house would judge the length of a manuscript to determine both how many sheets would be needed, and what the divisions were between one forme and another. (A forme is one side of a sheet: four quarto pages or two folio pages.) Because formes do not have many consecutive pages, estimates would be further broken down by page. If a quarto forme includes a putative page one, for instance, that side of the sheet would also include pages four, five, and eight.
Pronunciations with /u/, /uː/ respectively reflect differing adaptations of Old French, while those with /ɔ/ are influenced by Latin fōrma; for possible differentiation in pronunciation by sense, see the usage note at Modern English form.