Blurb

/blɜːrb/ noun

Definition

A short description or advertisement, especially of a book, movie, or product found on packaging or promotional materials.

Etymology

Coined around 1907 by American humorist Gelett Burgess, who needed a funny-sounding nonsense word for a book jacket. The name stuck and became standard publishing terminology.

Kelly Says

The word 'blurb' is only about 115 years old, making it a baby in linguistic terms—yet it's so useful that publishers worldwide adopted it, showing how great words spread by being genuinely needed.

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