colophon, n.

col·o·phon

kŏl′ə-fŏn″, -fən
kɒləfən

Etymology: < late Latin colophōn, < Greek κολοϕών summit, ‘finishing touch’.

1. ‘Finishing stroke’, ‘crowning touch’. Obsolete.

1628 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 3) iii. iv. ii. i. 621 His Colophon is how to resist and represse Atheisme.

1635 J. Swan Speculum Mundi ix. §1. 427 He [sc. God] comes to the creation of man, and makes him the Colophon, or conclusion of all things else.

2. spec.

a. The inscription or device, sometimes pictorial or emblematic, formerly placed at the end of a book or manuscript, and containing the title, the scribe's or printer's name, date and place of printing, etc. Hence, from title page to colophon.

1774 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry I. iii. 140 The name and date of illuminator, in the following colophon, written in golden letters.

1778 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry II. Addit. sig. d2 The volume has this colophon. ‘Here endeth the lyfe of the moost ferefullest and unmercyfullest and myschevous Robert the devill which was afterwards called the servaunt of our Lorde Jhesu Cryste. Emprinted in Fletestrete in [at] the sygne of the sonne by Wynkyn de Worde.’

1816 W. Scott Antiquary I. i. 16 The volume was uninjured and entire from title-page to colophon.

1852 A. De Morgan On Difficulty of Descr. Bks. (1902) 16 When the colophon, or final description, fell into disuse..since the title-page had become the principal direct means of identifying the book.

1884 G. A. Sala in Illustr. London News 31 May 519/2 A literary vampire—who collects nothing but title-pages and colophons.

b. = imprint n. 3. U.S.

1930 Publishers' Weekly 19 Apr. 2113/1 The publishers must cut their lists and have their colophons stand for a particular quality which, in time, the bookseller will recognize and consider in his buying.

1948 Chicago Tribune 27 June iv. 5/1 The Wilson company uses the lighthouse for its colophon.