The English language is a strange thing, and it gets
developed in strange ways. Or doesn't get developed. Medical science is responsible for a good deal. Incidentally I am asked, by _a reader who reluctantly acquiesces in 'hospitalisation," to stamp on the sentence "the patient was conferenced." I most cordially do, with both feet (only 91, I regret to say). But what really interests me is "tabloid." Now that word, particularly in reference to "the tabloid Press "—that section of the Press which specialises in boiling down news into short, sharp paragraphs—is well-established, both in this country and in America. The definition in the latest edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1951) is: "Newspaper that gives its news in concentrated and easily assimilable form." (I call this putting it politely.) But, it appears that " tabloid " is a patented trade-mark word. Not only appears, indeed, but is. The two-volume Oxford Dictionary—my edition is dated 1933—has this under " tabloid " :" A term registered in 1884 by Messrs. Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., as a trade-mark applied to chemical sub- stances used in medicine and pharmacy, 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." I am advised that "other goods" includes publications. So now what ?
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