| 释义 |
tabloid, n. (a.)|ˈtæblɔɪd|
[f. tablet n. + -oid: see sense 1. The figurative, transferred, and sometimes humorous uses derive from the compressed or concentrated form of the drugs sold by the firm under the name.]
1. a. (With capital initial.) A term registered on 14 March, 1884, by Messrs. Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., as a trade-mark applied to chemical substances used in medicine and pharmacy prepared by them, and afterwards for other goods; held by the Court of Appeal to be a ‘fancy word’ as applied to the goods for which it is registered, and legally restricted to the preparations of the firm named. Also loosely, (with lower-case initial), a small (medicinal) tablet.
1884Trade Marks Jrnl. 23 Apr. 334 Tabloid... Burroughs, Wellcome & Company, Snow Hill Buildings, Holborn Viaduct, London, E.C... Chemical substances not included in Class I, used in Medicine and Pharmacy. 1894Murray's Handbk. India (ed. 2) p. xx, For medicine, plenty of quinine in 2 or 4 grain ‘tabloids’ or pills. 1895Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 695/1 Tabloids—Ichthyol per bott. 0/7½... Tea per tin 0/5. 1904Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 18 Oct. 1743/2 Drugs and chemicals for human and veterinary use... Tabloid. 1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin ix. 161 Morphia tabloids were served out to all the officers of quarters for administration to badly injured men. 1938E. J. G. Forse Ceremonial Curiosities xxix. 149 It is wise to carry a few simple tabloids with you. 1978Daily Mirror 19 Apr. 24/1, I found a metal box which used to contain ‘Tabloid’ tea.
b. fig., etc. Freq. attrib. or as adj.
1898Natural Science Feb. 112 This presumed tabloid condition [of the flints] is brought about by a presumed extreme cold. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 574/2 The untouched cells below the cut grow larger..with the formation of tabloid cork-cells. 1903Mr. Justice Byrne 20 Nov.–14 Dec. in Repts. Patent & Trade Mark Cases XXI. 69 The word Tabloid has become so well-known..in consequence of the use of it by the Plaintiff firm in connection with their compressed drugs that I think it has acquired a secondary sense in which it has been used and may legitimately be used so long as it does not interfere with their trade rights. I think the word has been so applied generally with reference to the notion of a compressed form or dose of anything. 1906Westm. Gaz. 3 Jan. 3/1 Five short tableaux of drama which..might be described brutally as five tabloids of melodrama. 1909Westm. Gaz. 22 Oct. 5/2 While in literature the trend of taste is all in the direction of tabloids, composers seem ashamed of anything approaching terseness. 1920R. Macaulay Potterism vi. iii. 232 People might like their science in cheap and absurd tabloid form... The Potter press exulted in scientific discoveries made easy. 1928Melody Maker Feb. 145/2 Mr. Harold Craxton's playing on the piano of the ‘Three Blind Mice’..as a tabloid Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt. 1935Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. July 27 Statements of a vague character, which are condensations of complex propositional wholes... To such propositions I have elsewhere given the name ‘tabloids’.
2. a. R.A.F. slang. A small Sopwith biplane. (Disused.)
1913Aeroplane 11 Dec. 635/2 The small speedy Sopwith biplane has been nicknamed the ‘Tabloid’ because it contains so many good qualities in such small compass. 1915War Illustr. 20 Feb. 22/2 The ‘Tabloid's supreme value lies in its speed and climbing power. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 275 Tabloid, a, an Air Force nickname for a type of small Sopwith biplane of high speed and rapid climbing powers, a special favourite from its numerous good points, its, as it were, concentrated excellencies. 1928C. F. S. Gamble North Sea Air Station x. 149 In addition to its maximum speed of 92 miles an hour the ‘Tabloid’ was remarkable in those days for its great speed range.
b. In full tabloid cruiser. A small cruising yacht.
1930Yachting Monthly XLIX. 428/1 T's ship, Honora, is, except for her draught, a ‘tabloid’ cruiser: 19 ft. LOA, with 5 ft. 9 in. beam. 1937Ibid. LXIV. 17/1 Reflections on an unusual little tabloid. 1938Ibid. 452/2 A tabloid cruiser that goes foreign ought to be registered.
3. a. A popular newspaper which presents its news and features in a concentrated, easily assimilable, and often sensational form, esp. one with smaller pages than those of a regular newspaper.
1918W. E. Carson Northcliffe x. 304 Since 1908 Alfred Harmsworth, like his famous ‘tabloid’, has disappeared from view. 1926Encycl. Brit. II. 1055/2 The introduction of tabloids may be explained..by the passing remark of Lord Northcliffe, ‘If some American does not start one I shall have to come over to do it.’ 1928Observer 5 Feb. 18/1 The..chain now includes 26 papers, in most cases ‘tabloids’ or papers with a popular appeal. 1934A. Woollcott While Rome Burns 100, I remembered how confidently, but how inaccurately, the tabloids had prophesied the..divorce. 1949[see angel v. 1]. 1957Listener 31 Oct. 683/2 Newspapers have been allowed to transform themselves into tabloids with gossip columns, adulation of film stars, beauty contests and other requisites of the popular press of the West. 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard vi. 174, I presume you've read the tabloids? 1978Time 3 July 12/1 The National Enquirer, the Florida-based tabloid, dispatched ten reporters and photographers to scour the Riviera in quest of informants on the courtship.
b. attrib., esp. as tabloid newspaper.
1901Westm. Gaz. 1 Jan. 9/3 He advocated tabloid journalism. 1902Ibid. 1 Apr. 10/2 The proprietor intends to give in tabloid form all the news printed by other journals. 1918W. E. Carson Northcliffe x. 299 The New York World made its appearance. Harmsworth had issued the paper in what he called ‘tabloid form’. 1926Amer. Mercury Dec. 462/1 A tabloid weekly theatrical newspaper, published in New York, and filled with ugly type, heavy black advertisements and the most atrocious English ever put into print, was named as co-respondent by his wife. 1938[see jazz n. 6]. 1949Koestler Promise & Fulfilment ii. ii. 232 To the distant reader of the tabloid Press..it looked as if history had at last met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most ambitious dream. 1962V. Nabokov Pale Fire 22 He was back in the car, reading a tabloid newspaper which I had thought no poet would deign to touch. 1977New Yorker 19 Sept. 31/1 Next day, the tabloid Daily Mail gave the hearing its entire front page, but the Guardian didn't mention it at all.
Hence as v. trans., to express briefly or concisely; to condense. rare.
1933Partridge Slang To-day & Yesterday i. iv. 36 Much of the best wit, the most delectable humour is couched in slang; for, slang offers no compulsion to think how the happy thought is phrased or, perhaps, tabloided into an expressive adjective, or a second-sighted noun, an unravelling or illuminating verb. 1934Punch 21 Mar. 329/2 Also there is a certain sketchiness in the tale as tabloided for the two hours' traffic of our stage, and some of the connecting-links seem to have got lost in the process.
▸ tabloid-speak n. orig. and chiefly Brit. (freq. depreciative) language or style considered characteristic of tabloid journalism; tabloid jargon; cf. tabloidese n.
1981Guardian Weekly 27 Dec. 21/5 Having always baffled us with art-speak are they now going to insult us with *tabloid-speak? 1991Independent 6 July 37/1 Peter Joslin, the senior police spokesman on motoring matters, or ‘Britain's top traffic cop’ in tabloid-speak, has spoken out in favour of increasing the limit. 2006Financial Times (Nexis) 30 June (Sport Section) 11 Klinsmann has, in tabloid-speak, gone in the space of a few weeks from zero to hero. |