In a book lying open in front of you, the verso is the left-hand page and the recto is the right-hand page. In books that read left to right, the verso always carries an even page number and the recto an odd one — which is a quick way to check yourself. The word comes from printing and publishing, and it is used by editors, designers, printers and librarians when they need to be exact: 'put the map on the verso, facing the text'. Ordinary readers do not use it; they say 'the left page'. The word has a second, related use with single sheets — a manuscript leaf, a coin, a card. There, the verso is the back side, the side you see after you turn it over, and the recto is the front. That is really the original idea: verso comes from Latin for 'turned', meaning the side showing once the leaf has been turned. Because chapters in printed books usually start on a recto, the verso before a chapter opening is often left blank; you may hear this called a 'blank verso'.