doorbuster

[Kenneth Wolcott]

Subheading from an email selling me power tools:

"Featured Clickbuster Deals"
On Nov 23, 2012 10:56 AM, "Ben Zimmer" <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: doorbuster
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Barry Popik has compiled cites for "doorbuster" on his site (earliest
> is from 1917):
>
> http://barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/doorbuster/
>
> Most early cites are from Iowa papers. A 1925 article credits John
> Wanamaker's department store.
>
> On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 7:10 PM, Ben Zimmer  wrote:
> > Added to Oxford's current dictionaries (NOAD/ODE) in 2006:
> >
> > http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/doorbuster?q=doorbuster
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 5:26 PM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at highlands.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> doorbuster, n. {w} Also written door buster or door-buster.  a
> merchandise
> >> sale so inviting that customers will break the doors down to gain
> access.
> >> Standard (used in informal contexts dealing especially with Christmas
> retail
> >> sales; very frequent)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Computers, TVs, laptops, tablets.  Everything.  I'm here for it all,"
> >> Bryndon Romero of Newburgh said Wednesday, as he waited for the "door
> >> buster" sales to begin more than 30 hours later, at midnight Thursday.
> >> "Shoppers camp out for Black Friday," Times Herald Record, Nov. 22,
> 2012, p
> >> 48
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "We will have doorbusters Thursday night and until 1 p.m. Friday," Davis
> >> said.
> >>
> >> Goody's has stocked 10 percent more merchandise, and Davis said he was
> >> expecting it to be extremely busy. Matt Burrowes, "Black Friday comes a
> day
> >> early," The Natchez Democrat [Miss.] (Nexis), Nov. 22, 2012, p not given
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Reducing peak loads also is the goal of the early-morning and late-night
> >> promotions. Breakfast at Tiffany's may be more romantic than breakfast
> at
> >> Woodies, but Tiffany's doesn't have 8 a.m. doorbusters. Some stores
> >> practically will pay you to shop at that hour, and you're likely to get
> >> better service from clerks who have not yet been trampled by
> gift-givers.
> >> Jerry Knight, "Oh Come All Ye Shoppers," The Washington Post (Nexis),
> Dec.
> >> 10, 1984, Washington Business sect., p 1
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> It was the deal of the century, maybe the millenium: dinosaur bone
> fragments
> >> for a buck, door-buster discounts on mammoth molars and half price on
> >> trilobites.  "Domestic News," The Associated Press (Nexis), Sept. 23,
> 1983,
> >> p not given
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Says Ron Rulof, Lieberman Homes, "Newspaper sections have become more
> >> competitive, so we're using more direct mail.  In a particular part of
> town,
> >> it's better to identify prospects via income and special interests than
> run
> >> a door buster offer." "Street Smarts: How marketing works for home
> >> builders," Ad Day (Nexis), July 10, 1986, Sect. II, p 6
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Composite (compound): formed from door (eOED: 721), as in
> >>
> >> door-opener (eOED: n.d.), + buster (eOED: 1835), as in ratebuster (eOED:
> >> 1970).
>
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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>

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