Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Pica
Pi′ca
,Noun.
[L.
pica
a pie, magpie; in sense 3 prob. named from some resemblance to the colors of the magpie. Cf. Pie
magpie.] 1.
(Zool.)
The genus that includes the magpies.
2.
(Med.)
A vitiated appetite that craves what is unfit for food, such as clay, chalk, ashes, coal, etc.; chthonophagia.
Syn. – allotriophagy.
4.
(Print.)
A size of type next larger than small pica, and smaller than English.
☞
This line is printed in pica
☞ Pica is twice the size of nonpareil, and is used as a standard of measurement in casting leads, cutting rules, etc., and also as a standard by which to designate several larger kinds of type, as double pica, two-line pica, four-line pica, and the like.
Small pica
(Print.)
, a size of type next larger than long primer, and smaller than pica.
☞
This line is printed in small pica
Webster 1828 Edition
Pica
PI'CA
,Noun.
1.
In medicine, a vitiated appetite which makes the patient crave what is unfit for food, as chalk, ashes, coal, &c.2.
A printing type of a large size; probably named from litera picata, a great black letter at the beginning of some new order in the liturgy; hence,3.
Pica, pye or pie,formerly an ordinary, a table or directory for devotional services; also, an alphabetical catalogue of names and things in rolls and records.Pica marina, the sea-pye, ostralegus, or oyster-catcher; an aquatic fowl of the genus Haematopus. This fowl feeds on oysters, limpets and marine insects.