The Shorter Oxford Dictionary (1933) did not, after all, say
the last word on "tabloid." The last word had, so to speak, been said first, by the Oxford New English Dictionary—the twelve-volume giant, from which there is no appeal—in 1919. I read there " The word Tabloid has become so well known, in con- sequence of the use of it by the Plaintiff firm in connection with their compressed drugs, that I think it has acquired a secondary sense in which it has been used and may legitimately be used so long as it does not interfere with their trade rights. I think the word has been so applied generally with reference to the notion of a compressed form or dose of anything." 1903, November 20th-December 14th, Mr. Justice Byrne in Repts. Patent and Trade Mark Cases XXI, 69. '
So we needn't say pilule Press after all. But why did the Shorter Oxford Dictionary (1933) not tell us this for our relief ? * * * *