bombast

See also: Bombast

English

WOTD – 30 September 2017

Etymology

Bolls of cotton on a cotton plant (Gossypium) in Ware County, Georgia, USA. Bombast is an archaic name for cotton or cotton wool (sense 1).

From Old French bombace (“cotton, cotton wadding”), from Late Latin bombax (“cotton”), a variant of bombyx (“silkworm”), from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm”), possibly related to Middle Persian pmbk' (“cotton”), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to twist, wind”.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɒmbæst/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑmbæst/
• Hyphenation: bom‧bast

Noun

bombast (countable and uncountable, plural bombasts)

1. (archaic) Cotton, or cotton wool.

   Synonym: fustian

   • 1725, [Noël] Chomel, “SURBATING”, in R[ichard] Bradley, editor, Dictionaire Oeconomique: Or, The Family Dictionary. […], volume II (I–Z), London: […] D[aniel] Midwinter, […], →OCLC, column 2:

     SURBATING; a Diſtemper in a Horſe, who is ſaid to be ſurbated, when the Sole is worn, bruiſed or ſpoiled by travelling without Shoes, or with ill ſhoeing: [...] take Frankincenſe, and rolling it in a little fine Cotton Wool or Bombaſt, with a hot Iron melt it into the Foot betwixt the Shoe and the Toe, until the Orifice, where the Blood was taken away, is fill'd up; [...]

   • [[1874], S. W[arren], “The Wool-bearing Shrub”, in Cotton, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York, N.Y.: Pott, Young, & Co., →OCLC, page 14:

     This strange wool-bearing plant is of the mallow tribe. [...] Another name formerly given to the vegetable fleece was bombast. This word was in use before our ancestors were skilful enough to weave the cotton wool which was brought to them from the East in the merchant ships of Venice and Genoa. What they did not want for candle-wicks, they employed in stuffing and wadding their doublets and other articles of dress.]

2. (archaic) Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing, padding.
   • 1585, Phillip Stubbes [i.e., Philip Stubbs], The Anatomie of Abuses: Contayning a Discouerie, or Briefe Summarie of such Notable Vices and Imperfections, as now Raigne in Many Christian Countreyes of the Worlde: […], 3rd edition, London: […] Richard Iones, […], →OCLC, folio 23, recto and verso:

     [C]ertayne I am there was neuer any kinde of apparell euer inuented, that could more diſproportion the body of man, then theſe Dublettes with great bellies hanging downe beneath their Pudenda, (as I haue ſayd) & ſtuffed with foure, fiue, or ſixe pound of Bombaſt at the least: [...]

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 58, column 1:

     Heere comes leane Iacke, heere comes bare-bone. How now my ſweet Creature of Bombaſt, how long is't agoe, Iacke, ſince thou ſaw'ſt thine owne Knee?

3. (figurative) High-sounding words; language above the dignity of the occasion; a pompous or ostentatious manner of writing or speaking.

   Synonyms: aureation, (obsolete) bombard phrase, fustian, grandiloquence, purple prose

   • 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section I. The Introduction.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 40:

     Bombaſt and Buffoonry, by Nature lofty and light, ſoar higheſt of all, [...]

   • 1760, John Dryden, “The Art of Poetry”, in Samuel Derrick, editor, The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, Esq; Containing All His Original Poems, Tales, and Translations. […], volume I, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson […], →OCLC, canto I, pages 320–321:

     And let burleſque in ballads be employ'd; / Yet noiſy bombaſt carefully avoid, / Nor think to raiſe, tho on Pharſalia's plain, "Millions of mourning mountains of the ſlain:" [...]

   • 1899 January 16, William G[raham] Sumner, The Conquest of the United States by Spain: A Lecture before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale University, January 16, 1899, Boston, Mass.: Dana Estes & Company, […], →OCLC, page 30:

     Upon a little serious examination, the off-hand disposal of an important question of policy, by the declaration that Americans can do anything, proves to be only a silly piece of bombast, and, upon a little reflection, we find that our hands are quite full at home of problems, by the solution of which the peace and happiness of the American people could be greatly increased.

   • 2017 March 1, Anthony Zurcher, “Trump addresses Congress: A kinder, gentler president”, in BBC News‎, archived from the original on 5 June 2017:

     At least for one night, Donald Trump put aside the bombast and bellicosity of a campaign that seemed to bleed into his presidency.

Derived terms

• bombastic
• bombastical
• bombastically
• bombastry
• unbombast

 

Descendants

• → German: Bombast
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: bombast

Translations

High-sounding words; language above the dignity of the occasion; a pompous or ostentatious manner of writing or speaking

Indonesian: bombas (id) Latin: ampulla f Norwegian: Bokmål: bombast m

Verb

bombast (third-person singular simple present bombasts, present participle bombasting, simple past and past participle bombasted)

1. To swell or fill out; to inflate, to pad.
   • 1820, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Notes on [Richard] Baxter’s Life of Himself”, in Henry Nelson Coleridge, editor, The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, volume IV, London: William Pickering, published 1839, →OCLC, page 90:

     Their doctrine is to be seen in Jacob Behmen's books by him that hath nothing else to do, than to bestow a great deal of time to understand him that was not willing to be easily understood, and to know that his bombasted words do signify nothing more than before was easily known by common familiar terms.

2. To use high-sounding words; to speak or write in a pompous or ostentatious manner.
   • 1968, Christianna Brand, What Dread Hand?: A Collection of Short Stories, London: Michael Joseph, →OCLC:

     [']The ugly truth is, Gerald,' she said viciously, 'that you're a phoney, a rotten, bombasting phoney, trying to cover up from all the world, […][']

Translations

to inflate one's words, to bluster

Maori: tūpererū

Adjective

bombast (comparative more bombast, superlative most bombast)

1. Big without meaning, or high-sounding; bombastic, inflated; magniloquent.

   Synonyms: aureate, highfalutin

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 310, column 1:

     But he (as louing his owne pride, and purpoſes) / Euades them, with a bumbaſt Circumſtance, / Horribly ſtufft with Epithites of warre, / Non-ſuites my Mediators.

   • 1678, Abraham Cowley, “Ode. Of Wit.”, in The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley. […], 5th edition, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 7, page 3:

     'Tis not ſuch Lines as almoſt crack the Stage. / When Bajazet begins to rage. / Nor a tall Met'phor in the Bombaſt way, / Nor the dry chips of ſhort-lung'd Seneca.

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “bombast”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 24 July 2017.

Further reading

• fustian on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from German Bombast (“bombast”), from English bombast, from Old French bombace (“cotton, cotton wadding”), from Late Latin bombax (“cotton”), a variant of bombyx (“silkworm”), from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm”), of Anatolian origin.

Cognate with English bombast and German Bombast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʊm.bast/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ast
• Hyphenation: bom‧bast

Noun

bombast m (definite singular bombasten, indefinite plural bombaster, definite plural bombastene)

1. (archaic) bombast; cotton or cotton wool (raw fibers of cotton before being processed.)
   • 1951, Kristofer Visted, Hilmar Stigum, Vår gamle bondekultur I, page 251:
2. (figuratively) bombast (high-sounding words; language above the dignity of the occasion; a pompous or ostentatious manner of writing or speaking.)
   • 1990, Halfdan Kjerulf, Halfdan Kjerulfs dagbøker for årene 1833, 1840, 1850, 1851, page 316:

     et saadant ægte comediespil [på Det Kongelige Teater i København] frit for al svulst og bombast

     such a genuine comedy play [at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen] free of all pomp and bombast

   • 1943, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, Samlede Digterverker I, page 188:

     mange vrede klager, der bryde frem i stormende bombast

     many angry complaints that erupt in stormy bombast

Derived terms

• bombastisk (“bombastic”)

References

• “bombast” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “bombast” in Store norske leksikon

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Bombast.

Adjective

bombast m or n (feminine singular bombastă, masculine plural bombaști, feminine and neuter plural bombaste)

1. bombastic

Declension

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	bombast		bombastă	bombaști	bombaste
	definite	bombastul		bombasta	bombaștii	bombastele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	bombast		bombaste	bombaști	bombaste
	definite	bombastului		bombastei	bombaștilor	bombastelor

Declension of bombast

References

• bombast in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN