blowhard

See also: blow-hard

English

WOTD – 14 November 2017

Etymology

Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb; from blow hard.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbləʊhɑːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbloʊhɑɹd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: blow‧hard

Noun

blowhard (plural blowhards)

1. (Canada, US, derogatory) A person who talks too much or too loudly, especially in a boastful or self-important manner. [from c. 1840]
   • 1861 October 20, “Interesting from Arkansas. Correspondence of the Missouri Democrat.”, in The New York Times‎, page 2:

     The merchants are the most ultra Secessionists, one of the secret springs of action among this class being the heavy indebtedness owing to Eastern creditors. Some men of Northern origin were the most rabid. A "blow-hard," named JAMES PATTERSON, of Augusta, Jackson County, was originally from Pennsylvania. He stumped the county and was elected to the Convention, and cast his vote for secession.

   • 1896, Robert Barr, “The Shadow of the Greenback”, in Revenge!, New York, N.Y., London: Frederick A. Stokes Company, →OCLC, page 182:

     [T]he loud-mouthed blowhard seemed just the man to flinch when real danger confronted him; […]

   • 1941 November 17, “Political Notes: Republican Rift?”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 16 April 2016:

     Oh, this bellowing, blatant, bellicose, belligerent, bombastic blowhard […]

   • 1999, Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, Wendy Mazzarella, “Learning to Ask the Right Questions—and Listen to the Answers”, in Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior—Anytime, Anyplace, London: Vermilion, Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 109:

     In my profession, I have seen more than my share of blowhards who use volume to intimidate the weak, fool the feeble-minded, or control the insecure or lazy who would just as soon have someone do their thinking for them anyway.

   • 2017 March 27, “The Observer view on triggering article 50: As Britain hurtles towards the precipice, truth and democracy are in short supply”, in The Observer‎, London, archived from the original on 30 August 2017:

     David Davis, Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and the other Brexit blowhards know they have no chance of achieving their stated aims, such as a £350m weekly NHS payback.

Alternative forms

• blow-hard

Synonyms

• big mouth
• bloviator
• blusterer
• boaster
• braggart
• loudmouth
• windbag

 

Translations

person who talks too much or too loudly

Arabic: Gulf Arabic: مضرطچي Chinese: Mandarin: 吹牛大王 (zh) (chuīniú dàwáng) Czech: chvastoun (cs) m, chvastounka f, chlubil m, křikloun (cs) m, křiklounka f, tlachal m, žvanil m, tlučhuba (cs) m, mluvka m, kecal (cs) m Dutch: kletsmajoor (nl) m, blaaskaak (nl) m Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: rehvastelija (fi), suupaltti (fi) French: grande gueule (fr) f German: Großmaul (de) n, Grossmaul (de) n (Switzerland, Liechtenstein), Angeber (de) m, Angeberin (de) f Greek: καυχησιάρης (el) m (kafchisiáris) Italian: sbruffone (it) m, sbruffona (it) f, fanfarone (it) m, fanfarona (it) f Korean: 허풍쟁이 (heopungjaeng'i), 허풍선이 (heopungseoni) Maori: pīho Russian: хвасту́н (ru) m (xvastún), хвасту́нья (ru) f (xvastúnʹja), трепло́ (ru) n anim or m anim (trepló) Spanish: bocazas (es) m or f Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• blowhard (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “blowhard”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “blowhard”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.