Preferred label

Lock  

Alternative label

Tongue; Letterlock; band; the use of locks; making up, ties; L; nizza (Italian); girolo (Italian); nema (Spanish)    

Scope note

A material appendage to the main writing substrate, used to fasten or secure a letterpacket shut. As part of the locking mechanism, locks often (though not always) work in combination with slits/holes and/or adhesive. One of the principal manipulations of letterlocking. Locks are subdivided into three kinds: 

  • Lock–Other, 

  • Lock-Same Substrate, Attached, and 

  • Lock–Same Substrate, Unattached.        

Parent concept

Letterlocking manipulation       

uh-linked-data/concept/298        

Related concept                                                     

Locking mechanism       

uh-linked-data/concept/319

The Arts & Architecture ThesaurusⓇ Online, The Getty Research Institute. Concept uri

Not in AAT       

The Language of Bindings Thesaurus (LoB) Concept uri

 Not in LoB

Scope note source reference

Source

Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, and the Unlocking History Research Group. Letterlocking, The Hidden History of the Letter. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2025.

Unlocking History Concept uri

uh-linked-data/concept/309