Dictionary

coffee table book en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɒfi ˌteɪbəl ˈbʊk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈkɔfi ˌteɪbəl ˈbʊk/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

] So called because it might be displayed on a coffee table in a person’s home.

Meanings

1. A large book, usually with lavish illustrations, typically displayed on a coffee table.
   • I am leery of coffee table books. They are often pretty but have little substance once you get under the surface. 2002, NAWCC Bulletin, volume 44, Columbus, Pa.: National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 1:
   • 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. 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, page cxlix:
   • The Family Book of Black America (Crown, $20), a photographic coffee table book, by Michael H. Cottman and Deborah Willis. 1996 November, “Ebony Bookshelf”, in Lerone Bennett Jr., editor, Ebony, volume LII, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18B:
   • 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. 1976, Robert Plant Armstrong, “The Qualities of a Book, the Wants of a Dissertation”, in Eleanor Harman, 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:

Forms

Translations (15)

fr beau livre (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · ar كتب طاولة القهوة (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · ga leabhar bord íseal (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · he ספר מתנה (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · cmn 大型畫冊 /大型画册 (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · ga leabhar tábla caife (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · nl koffietafelboek (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · ta பெரிதாக்கப்பட்ட காபி மேஜை புத்தகம் (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · th หนังสือโต๊ะกาแฟ (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · ms buku mewah (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · fr beau-livre (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · pl ozdobna książka do przeglądania (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · de Coffee Table Book (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · fi kahvipöytäkirja (large book typically displayed on a coffee table) · pt edição de mesa (large book typically displayed on a coffee table)