quire

Meanings

Noun

• One-twentieth of a ream of paper; a collection of twenty-four or twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality, unfolded or having a single fold.
• A set of leaves which are stitched together, originally a set of four pieces of paper (eight leaves, sixteen pages). This is most often a single signature (i.e. group of four), but may be several nested signatures.
• A book, poem, or pamphlet.
• A choir.
• One quarter of a cruciform church, or the architectural area of a church used by the choir, often near the apse.

Verb

• To prepare quires by stitching together leaves of paper.
• To sing in concert.

Origin

• From Middle English quayer, from Anglo-Norman quaier and Old French quaer, from Vulgar Latin *quaternus, from Latin quaterni ("four at a time"), from quater. cahier.
• See choir.