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March 2, 2011 5:13 am
I recently encountered the term "potted biography." Searching the internet, I found a lot of items designated as potted biographies -- as far as I can tell they are concise biographies such as you might find in an almanac or on encyclopedia. I did not find, however, a complete definition or an origin for the phrase. Does anyone have any ideas? Based on the items I pulled up, I suspect the term is primarily British.
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March 2, 2011 5:24 am
The OED has 'potted' in definition 3 as:
a. Of a piece of information, work of literature, historical or descriptive account, etc.: put into a short and easily assimilable form; condensed, summarized, abridged.
Its first entry is from 1791.
Emmett