puffery

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English puff

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -ārius

Old French -ier

Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-ijos

Proto-Italic *-ios

Old Latin -ios

Latin -ius

Latin -ia

Old French -ie

Old French -eriebor.

Middle English -erie

English -ery

English puffery

From puff + -ery.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʌfəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Noun

puffery (countable and uncountable, plural pufferies)

1. An act of puffing.
2. Excessive or false public praise.
3. Superficial or insubstantial material; fluff.
   • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 294:

     Harvest was promptly pegged as a "lite" group, a purveyor of pop puffery.

   • 1996 November, J. E. Lighter, “Blowing Smoke”, in The Atlantic‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 September 2015:

     Cigarheads even have a new magazine, a lavish, glossy two-pound package of pride and puffery called Cigar Aficionado.

Derived terms

• puff piece

Translations

act of puffing

• French: esbroufe (fr)
• German: , Paffen n, Aufblasen n, Pusten n, Blasen (de) n, Fortblasen n

fulsome public praise

• German: Schmeichlerei f, Anpreisung (de) f, Marktschreierei f, marktschreierisches Gehabe n, marktschreierisches Anpreisen n, Lobhudelei (de) f, überschwängliches Lob n, Lobeshymne (de) f