bloviate

Oct. 16th, 2012 07:36 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
bloviate (BLOH-vee-ayt) - v., to speak or write windily, aimlessly, or pompously.


What blowhards do -- thus the blo- part. This is another colorful 19th century mock-Latin Americanism, coined in the early 1850s -- one that hasn't really traveled outside of the States. It was considered old-fashioned slang in the 1890s, but President Warren G. Harding revived the word both by using and performing it, and it has remained current, with a few ups and downs in fashion, ever since.

---L.

February 2026

S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 67
8 9 10 11 121314
15161718192021
22232425262728

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 13th, 2026 05:58 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios