Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
My pet peeve is people using the word "blurb" when they mean "description." A blurb, traditionally, is not the damned description. It's a BLURB. A blurb is a comment or praise from some authority, whether it's Stephen King or the NYTimes' Book Review. Yes--before anyone jumps in--I know that the OED allows that "blurb" can be a short, eulogistic description by a publisher. Nonetheless, in the biz, historically, a blurb is not the description, (as in the description field on Amazon's website); it's the praise.
Offered solely FWIW.
Hitch
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An interesting point. There certainly seems to be some confusion both in this thread and generally. I totally accept what you say about the distinction between a blurb and a description in the industry. But a quick search reveals a variety of definitions, many of which, (including the OED which you mentioned), do encompass a description. This certainly does not mean that you are wrong, but it does mean there is much confusion. I myself have been guilty of using the term "blurb" to encompass what appears on the back cover of many paperbacks, usually but not always both a description and testimonials. In fact, one of my pet hates is the omission of a description in favour only of testimonials. Nevertheless, in the future I intend to be more precise where possible and perhaps use "testimonial(s)" and "description" in future.
Clearly many posters to this thread have understood the term as including a description. I would be interested in your list of your pet peeves with descriptions.