rubbing : Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.

DJ : Short for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps around the binding of a book.

spine : The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf. Also known as the back.

reprint : Any printing of a book which follows the original edition. By definition, a reprint is not a first edition.

8vo : Short for Octavo, A book whose page size is approximately 8-10 inches tall. The size is based on a sheet of paper 25 inches by 38 inches, the size of paper traditionally used by book printers, which has been folded and cut into 16 pages.. Unfortunately often misunderstood to mean 8 volumes.

endpaper : The double leaves bound into a book at the front and rear after printing. One side is glued to the inner portion of the boards (the paste-down) and the other is left loose (free endpaper).

plate : Full page illustration or photograph. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e., they are not sewn as parts of gatherings.