catch titlen.
/ˈkatʃ ˌtʌɪtl/, U.S. /ˈkɛtʃ ˌtaɪd(ə)l/, /ˈkætʃ ˌtaɪd(ə)l/ 1. A title of a book, lecture, etc., that is designed to stimulate interest or attract attention, esp. one providing little indication of the subject matter. Now somewhat rare.
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1829 Eclectic Rev. Dec. 555 He has committed a palpable offence against religious propriety, by his unmeaning use of a Divine name of peculiarly sacred character [sc. Emmanuel], as the catch-title of a bookseller's speculation.
1857 Daily News 25 Nov. 2/3 One of those happy catch-titles which the author..has the knack of bestowing on such of his literary bantlings as require the aid of a baby jumper to lift them into popular favour.
1868 Manch. Guardian 23 Dec. 3/2 ‘The World at Home’..is a catch title after all; for these miscellanea are no more the world than a net-full of fishes constitutes the sea.
1929 N. Amer. Rev. Sept. 348/2 Silly catch-titles to lure people to insipid discourses.., all in a desperate attempt to get the largest congregation.
1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 May 566/5 The catch title Scribes and Sources is somwhat Delphic.
2. Chiefly Library Science. A short, distinguishing title given to a book or other publication, esp. an abbreviated form of the full title used in cataloguing or indexing, typically consisting of significant or memorable words from the title. Cf. catchword n. 5b. Now chiefly historical and somewhat rare.
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society > communication > book > book list > [noun] > list of books in library or libraries > entry in > manner of
catch title1866
hanging paragraph1959
1866 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts 41 412 The great convenience to citation and reference of what may be called catch-titles to papers of descriptive botany or zoology, consisting of a prominent word or two, by which the paper may be succinctly referred to.
1876 Publisher's Weekly 19 Aug. 345/1 Sheldon & Co...have added indexes by catch-title and by author.
1915 Bull. (Univ. State of N.Y.) 1 Mar. 171 For such a card the catch title is recommended in place of the full title, dots being used to show the omission of an introductory phrase.
1924 Stud. Philol. 21 7 The following list includes..the books that are frequently cited in the Indexes by an abbreviated or catch-title.
1970 A. Kent et al. Encycl. Libr. & Information Sci. IV. 256 The..Bodleian catalog..issued in 1674..kept the alphabetical sequence of authors with catch titles for anonymous works.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1829