bloviate

English

WOTD – 30 April 2006

Etymology

1845, US, Ohio, from blow (“speak idly, boast”) + -i- +‎ -ate, by analogy with deviate.

Pronunciation

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Verb

bloviate (third-person singular simple present bloviates, present participle bloviating, simple past and past participle bloviated)

1. (US) To speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner.
   • 1845, Huron Reflector, Norwalk, Ohio, 14 Oct. 3/1:

     Peter P. Low, Esq., will with open throat…bloviate about the farmers being taxed upon the full value of their farms, while bankers are released from taxation.

Usage notes

Particularly used of politicians, bloviate has passed in and out of fashion over the centuries, falling out of fashion by end of 19th century, but was popularized in the early 1920s with reference to president Warren G. Harding, and again in the 1990s and then 2000 presidential election, and is currently in popular use.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:talk.

Derived terms

• bloviation
• bloviator

Related terms

• blowhard

Translations

to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner

• French: parler en pompeux

• Romanian: a te lungi, a te lungi cu vorba
• Russian: (colloquial) почесать язык (počesatʹ jazyk)

See also

• windbag
• Appendix:Fanciful 19th century American coinages

References

• Allan A. Metcalf (2004), Presidential voices: speaking styles from George Washington to George W. Bush, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, “Once More the Bloviator”, pp. 134–135, ISBN 978-0-618-44374-1

Anagrams

• oblative