English
tabloid
Tabloid comes from Proto-Indo-European *wéydos ‘seeing’, and goes back to *weyd- ‘to see’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyd-‘to see’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéydos‘seeing’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*wéidosreconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEεἶδοςeîdos
- Englishearliest quotation 1890tabloid
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyd-‘to see’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéydos‘seeing’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*wéidosreconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEεἶδοςeîdos
- Englishearliest quotation 1890tabloid
Earliest quotation: 1890, Medicines Supplied to the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition: “One of the compartments was found to contain some…”
Formed from tablet + -oid
Proto-Italic *taðlā ‘board’
Latin tabula ‘tablet, sometimes a tablet covered with wax…’
Old French table
Old French tablete ‘small table’
Middle English tablet ‘a tablet, especially an easily carried one…’
English tablet
The story
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. Noun sense 2 (‘compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature’) is influenced by noun sense 2.2 (‘newspaper characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *weyd- ‘to see’
story, guy, video, review, idea, visit, evidence, provide, advice, interview, vision, witness, guide, historic, wisdom, visa, advise, wit, wizard, invisible, historian, evident, visibility, wisely, witty, revise, guise, vista, prudent, envious, jurisprudence, unwise, prudence, revue, improvise, avis, purview, druid, twit, voyeur, 105 more
through Proto-Indo-European *wéydos ‘seeing’
through Proto-Hellenic *wéidos
through Ancient Greek εἶδος
idol, steroid, hypothyroidism, idyll, hyperthyroidism, thyroxine, parathyroid, trapezoid, hyoid, thyroiditis, sigmoid, colloid, 50 more
Today it means
noun A small, compressed portion of a chemical, drug, food substance, etc.; a pill, a tablet.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *weyd- / tabloid