tabloid
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtæblɔɪd/
ipa: /ˈtæbˌlɔɪd/
Forms: form: tabloids
form: tabloiding
form: tabloided
form: tabloided
Etymology: The noun is derived from tabl(et) + -oid (suffix meaning ‘having the likeness of, resembling’), originally coined by the United Kingdom firm Burroughs, Wellcome & Company as a brand name for their medicines and other products such as tea in tablet form and registered as a trademark on 14 March 1884.
Sense 2 (“compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature”) is influenced by sense 2.3 (“newspaper characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news”).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: This "tabloiding" of the latest fashions, we thought an excellent idea. Surely it's not the sole mission of a dry goods ad. to give news of bargains? Would not reliable information as to coming fashions be of equal interest to the average woman?
ref: 1902 April, “Good Advertising for Wide-awake Retailers”, in The Canadian Dry Goods Review, volume XII, number 4, Montreal, Que.; Toronto, Ont.: The MacLean Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 20, column 1:
text: You won't have trouble recognizing some of the much-tabloided originals on whom characters are based—for example, the rather lonely figure of the Italian-American singer-actor-producer-and-great lover.
ref: 1969 March 31, Gerald Walker, “Books: Crime Pays but So Do Criminals: The Godfather; by Mario Puzo. Putnam, 446 pages, $6.95. [book review]”, in New York, volume 2, number 13, New York, N.Y.: New York Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 59, column 1:
text: If Michael [Jordan] is upset, though, because the Chicago Sun-Times has tabloided his private life with the front-page headline, "So who gets the house?" he isn't saying.
ref: 2002 November, Mitchell Krugel, “Bull”, in One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan’s Comeback, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, section 3, page 177:
glosses: To express (something) in a compact or condensed manner, especially in the style of journalism generally associated with a tabloid newspaper (appealing to unsophisticated people, sensational, etc.).
examples: text: The ‘tabloiding’ of local newspapers has resulted in a ‘dumbing down’ of the local press. The publication of shorter, brighter, ‘frothier’ stories and the increasing reliance on stories about entertainment, consumer items and ‘human interest’ stories, are the infallible hallmarks of the tabloid genre.
ref: 1998, Bob Franklin, David Murphy, “Changing Times: Local Newspapers, Technology and Markets”, in Bob Franklin, David Murphy, editors, Making the Local News: Local Journalism in Context, London: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Local Newspapers and Local Media), page 15:
text: The first key developments in the tabloiding of British newspapers are defined initially and literally by the shift of the Sun to a tabloid format in 1969 and the Daily Mail in 1971.
ref: 2013, Martin Conboy, “Products”, in Journalism Studies (The Basics), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 121:
topics: journalism
media
newspapers
glosses: To convert (a newspaper) into a tabloid (noun sense 2.3) format.