Blurbed.

[Dave Monroe]

Main Entry: blurb 
Pronunciation: 'bl&rb
Function: noun
Etymology: coined by Gelett Burgess
: a short publicity notice (as on a book jacket)

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=blurb

Burgess, Gelett
b. Jan. 30, 1866, Boston, Mass., U.S.
d. Sept. 17, 1951, Carmel, Calif.
in full FRANK GELETT BURGESS, American humorist and
illustrator, best known for a single, early, whimsical
quatrain: [The Purple Cow]

Burgess was educated as an engineer and worked briefly
for a railroad in that capacity. Between 1891 and 1894
he taught topographical drawing at the University of
California. In 1895 Burgess became the founding editor
of Lark, a humour magazine, and in 1897 he began to
publish books of his self-illustrated whimsical
writings.

Burgess' humour was based upon the sudden break of
ideas: a substitution of the unexpected for the
commonplace. Among his best-known works are Goops and
How to Be Them (1900) and subsequent books on Goops
(bad-mannered children). He is credited with adding
several words to the English language, including
blurb. Among his many other works are Are You a
Bromide? (1906), Why Men Hate Women (1927), and Look
Eleven Years Younger (1937).

--EB

blurb blArb. slang (orig. U.S.). [See note below.] A
brief descriptive paragraph or note of the contents or
character of a book, printed as a commendatory
advertisement, on the jacket or wrapper of a newly
published book. Hence in extended use: a descriptive
or commendatory paragraph. Also Comb. Said to have
been originated in 1907 by Gelett Burgess in a comic
book jacket embellished with a drawing of a
pulchritudinous young lady whom he facetiously dubbed
Miss Blinda Blurb. (D.A.) See Mencken Amer. Lang.
Suppl. I. 329.

-- OED

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/120.html

BLURB
A short description of a product written for
promotional purposes.

We associate the word blurb most closely with books,
which is only fair, since it was invented for a
meeting of the American Booksellers Association in
1907. The American illustrator and humorist Gelett
Burgess had written How to be a Bromide in 1906,
introducing bromidioms, hackneyed phrases (such as “I
don’t know much about art, but I know what I like”)
uttered by boring and predictable people whom he named
bromides, after the then familiar sedative, potassium
bromide. These days, the bromides are more frequently
the commonplace statements rather than the people
making them, but Burgess is credited with inventing
the word.

For the meeting in 1907, his book, selling well, was
presented to members of the Association attending
their annual dinner. As was usual, a special bookplate
was designed, which featured a young woman named
Belinda Blurb shouting the praises of his work in
effusive language. The booksellers and publishers
clearly found the word an excellent one for the
puffing encomiums on the dustjackets of books and by
about 1914 it had become the standard term for them.

Gelett Burgess invented more new words than anybody
else at that period, which he incorporated into
several books...

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-blu1.htm

Blurb: a stupid word for a stupid thing. It originated
with Gelett Burgess (1866­1951), who gave the name
Miss Blinda Blurb to the voluptuous blonde he drew in
1906 to illustrate his comic booklet Are You a
Bromide? Eight years later, in Burgess Unabridged: A
New Dictionary of Words You Have Always Needed (1914),
he defined the word: "Blurb, 1. A flamboyant
advertisement; an inspired testimonial. 2. Fulsome
praise; a sound like a publisher." Burgess, it should
be noted, also gave us goop (1900), which the Oxford
English Dictionary defines as "a stupid or fatuous
person." Etymology is not without its own
illuminations....

http://www.bookforum.com/archive/feb_05/tosches.html

Blurb - A laudatory ad, especially on a book jacket.
Coined by American humorist Gelett Burgess
(1866-1951). At the turn of the century, it was
customary to adorn the cover of a novel with the
picture of a young woman. When his latest book was
about to be distributed at a 1907 booksellers'
convention, Burgess redesigned its jacket in honor of
the occasion. He placed the requisite female on the
cover, added a winsome smile and otherwise enhanced
her appearance, and christened her Miss Blinda Blurb
in the accompanying ad text. The name stuck. 

http://www.trivia-library.com/b/origins-of-invented-words-blurb.htm

blurb  
1907, coined by U.S. humorist Gelett Burgess
(1866-1951) to mock excessive praise printed on book
jackets. But also sometimes attributed to U.S. scholar
Brander Matthews (1852-1929). 

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=blurb

--- tony antoniadis <tony.antoniadis at gmail.com> wrote:

> and who came up with that word, blurb?


		
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