" In the printed text "accordion" is consistently spelled as "accordian", a spelling for which I can find no literary warrant. I have quietly corrected this throughout.

The Art and Architecture Thesaurus gives "accordion fold books" as a lead-in term for "folded books" and consistently uses this spelling for terms such as "accordion pleats," "accordion-folds," etc.

Similarly, the term "Accordion fold format" appears in Binding terms: a thesaurus for use in rare book and special collections cataloguing , prepared by the Standards Committee of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, ACRL/ALA. Chicago : Association of College and Research Libraries, 1988.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology as "[f. It. accord-are to attune an instrument, to play in unison: the termination imitates words like clarion.]". Moreover, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language : Fourth Edition. 2000 gives "German Akkordion, from Akkord, chord, from French accord, harmony, from Old French acorder, to accord, from Medieval Latin accordre, to bring into agreement. See accord." which even more strongly supports "accordion".

In the printed text, the footnote refers to Clough, Eric. A. Bookbinding for Librarians . London, Association of Assistant Librarians. 1957, a work I have not been able to consult.

However, note that Library of Congress Authorities , (Library of Congress Online Catalog) does list the following entries:

Accordian Construction. [from old catalog]
Accordian ensembles. [from old catalog]
Accordian. [from old catalog]
Accordian Methods. [from old catalog]
Accordian music, Arranged. [from old catalog]
Accordian music. [from old catalog]
Accordians 1910-1920.

None of these, however, are indicated as authorized headings.

The British Library Public Catalogue lists 25 titles with "accordian" (875 for "accordion"), which might support "accordian" as a legitimate variant.[wh]