Pasteboard is stiff, thick paper made by pasting several sheets together, similar to what we call cardboard today. Before modern manufacturing, people created pasteboard by gluing thin sheets of paper on top of each other and pressing them flat until they dried into a single rigid board.

For centuries, pasteboard was the main material for making everything from book covers to playing cards to theatrical masks. Bookbinders used it to create sturdy covers that would protect pages for years. Theater companies built lightweight scenery and props from pasteboard that actors could easily move around the stage. Playing cards got their distinctive stiffness from layers of pasteboard, which made them easy to shuffle and deal.

While we rarely use the term pasteboard anymore (we usually just say cardboard or poster board), you might encounter it in older books. Charles Dickens wrote about pasteboard boxes, and Lewis Carroll's playing cards in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland were made of pasteboard. When someone calls something pasteboard, they might mean it's flimsy or fake, like pasteboard stage scenery pretending to be a real castle wall.