coffee table book
See also: coffee-table book
English
WOTD – 5 July 2019
Etymology
A coffee table book on a coffee table in the living room of a home
So called because it might be displayed on a coffee table in a person’s home.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒfi ˌteɪbəl ˈbʊk/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɔfi ˌteɪbəl ˈbʊk/
- Hyphenation: cof‧fee ta‧ble book
Noun
coffee table book (plural coffee table books)
- A large book, usually with lavish illustrations, typically displayed on a coffee table.
- 1976, Robert Plant Armstrong, “The Qualities of a Book, the Wants of a Dissertation”, in Eleanor Harman and Ian Montagnes, editors, The Thesis and the Book, paperbound edition, Toronto, Ont.; Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, published 2002, →ISBN, pages 19–20:
- Nonbooks are of several kinds; but their differences notwithstanding, they all share two common features: they tend to be written for market rather than for intellectual reasons, and they are all means rather than ends. [...] Of all nonbooks, the most conspicuous example is the ‘coffee-table book’. The latter usually find their market by virtue of their decorative assets rather than from any literary or intellectual merit, or for that matter – since such works are often art books – by significantly serving important aesthetic or historical purposes.
- 1996 November, “Ebony Bookshelf”, in Lerone Bennett Jr., editor, Ebony, volume LII, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, ISSN 0012-9011, OCLC 671775046, page 18B:
- The Family Book of Black America (Crown, $20), a photographic coffee table book, by Michael H. Cottman and Deborah Willis.
- 2002, NAWCC Bulletin, volume 44, Columbus, Pa.: National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, ISSN 0027-8688, OCLC 841903811, page 10, column 1:
- I am leery of coffee table books. They are often pretty but have little substance once you get under the surface.
- 2003, “In a Timeless Wrap: The Sari is Serenaded as a Living Entity that Defines the Dreams of the Indian Woman”, in India Today, volume 28, New Delhi: Thomson Living Media India, OCLC 213775499, page cxlix:
- Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller serenade the garment [the sari] in their remarkable coffee-table book The Sari. [...] Photographs build the warp and weft of coffee-table books. Words seldom rule and even if written by well-known writers, they have to take second place to the camera's five-colour dominance.
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Alternative forms
- coffee-table book
Translations
large book typically displayed on a coffee table
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Further reading
coffee table book on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - “coffee table book”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.