What is the etymology of "blurb"? [closed]

I read:

I would admire the blurb on the book jacket.

How is the word blurb related to book covers?

Solution 1:

According to the OED it is:

Said to have been originated in 1907 by Gelett Burgess in a comic book jacket embellished with a drawing of a pulchritudinous young lady whom he facetiously dubbed Miss Blinda Blurb. (D.A.) See Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 329.

The meaning of blurb is given as:

A brief descriptive paragraph or note of the contents or character of a book, printed as a commendatory advertisement, on the jacket or wrapper of a newly published book. Hence in extended use: a descriptive or commendatory paragraph. Also in combinations.

However, in Britain today, the word blurb is used, in the same derisorily way, but in a wider context to include any, considered superfluous and excessive, paperwork, such as instructions, explanations, commendations etc.