balaam
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun Matter regarding marvelous and incredible events inserted in a newspaper to fill space.
Examples
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I must get a friend's assistance for the scientific part, and add some balaam of mine own (as printers' devils say) to make up four or five pages.
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I well know (and so does every body that ever stepped into a printing office) that a certain proportion of what is technically called 'balaam' must go to fill up the pages of every periodical work, from the Scotsman to the Edinburgh Review inclusive.
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Balaam, technically speaking, is that rejected, diseased and unwholesome manuscript which lies about a printing office, which gets into type only on extraordinary emergencies, when there is an addition to the Editor's family, or an uncommonly late sitting at a Saint's festival or a more than usually jolly packet launching and lunching.
Note
‘Balaam’ comes from the story of Balaam the prophet and the miracle of his talking donkey.
