tabloid的词源

英文词源

tabloid

tabloid: [19] Tabloid originated as a trade-name for a brand of tablets of condensed medicine, registered in 1884 by Burroughs, Wellcome and Company. It was an alteration of tablet [14], which came from Old French tablete, a diminutive form of table (source of English table). This originally denoted a ‘slab for writing on or inscribing’. Such slabs would have been flat and often quite small, and in the late 16th century the term came to be applied to a ‘flat compressed piece of something’ – such as soap or medicine.

The notion of ‘compression’ or ‘condensation’ underlies the use of tabloid for newspapers of small page size and ‘condensed’ versions of news stories, which emerged at the beginning of the 20th century (‘He advocated tabloid journalism’, Westminster gazette 1 January 1901).
=> table

tabloid (n.)

1884, Tabloid, "small tablet of medicine," trademark name (by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co.) for compressed or concentrated chemicals and drugs, a hybrid formed from tablet + Greek-derived suffix -oid. By 1898, it was being used figuratively to mean a compressed form or dose of anything, hence tabloid journalism (1901), and newspapers that typified it (1917), so called for having short, condensed news articles and/or for being small in size. Associated originally with Alfred C. Harmsworth, editor and proprietor of the "London Daily Mail."

Mr. Harmsworth entered a printing office twenty years ago as office-boy, and today owns thirty periodicals besides The Mail. Upon a friendly challenge from Mr. Pulitzer of The New York World, the English journalist issued the first number of The World for the new century in the ideal form. The size of the page was reduced to four columns and the general make-up was similar in appearance to that of one of the weekly magazines. Current news was presented in condensed and tabulated form, of which the editor says: "The world enters today upon the twentieth or time-saving century. I claim that by my system of condensed or tabloid journalism hundreds of working hours can be saved each year." ["The Twentieth Century Newspaper," in "The Social Gospel," February 1901]

中文词源

tabloid：通俗小报

1884年英国化学家Henry Wellcome 爵士研制了一种由数种药合成的新片剂，取名Tabloid,Burroughs Wellcome 制药公司把它作为商标名注了册。Tabloid 系由 tablet（药片）和后缀 -oid （形状像...的东西）拼缀而成。由于这种片剂是由该公司原先生产的数种药压缩而成的，所以 Tabloid 以后被赋予“浓缩物”之义，并且逐渐通用起来。到了19世纪90年代，Tabloid 已开始由商标名逐渐变为普通名词，用以指片剂或版面比一般报纸小一半，内容浓缩，配有插图的通俗小报。1902年《威斯敏斯特报》（Westminster Gazette）刊行了一种通俗小报，就取名为 Tabloid ,B.W. 公司为此向法院提出侵权诉讼，法院认为，这一商村名的专用权只有在它被用于药片时才受到保护。《威斯敏斯特报》获得胜诉之后，Tabloid 一词越来越广泛地被用来指“图片多文字少的通俗小报”，首字母也由大写变为小写，最后取代了早先用的“药片”一义。

该词的英语词源请访问找单词词源英文版：tabloid 词源，tabloid 含义。

tabloid：通俗小报，八卦报纸

来自 tablet,药片，-oid,类。比喻用法，即像小药片一样包含各种原料的，后用于指通俗小报， 八卦报纸，缩写于 tabloid journalism.