Rodomontade

Rodomontade

Rodomontade " od-uh-muhn-TADE; roh-duh-muhn-TAHD" is a mass noun meaning boastful talk or behavior. The term is a reference to Rodomonte, a character in Italian Renaissance epic poems "Orlando innamorato" and its sequel "Orlando furioso". [ [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-rod1.htm Definition and history] from World Wide Words]

Examples of use

*A 19th century example of the use of the term can be found in "The Adventures of Captain Bonneville" by Washington Irving. Irving used it to describe the behavior of "free trappers", fur trappers who worked freelance and adopted the manner, habits, and dress of the native Americans. When free trappers visited Bonneville's camp, he welcomed them and ordered grog for everyone:::"They [the free trappers] pronounced the captain the finest fellow in the world, and his men all "bon garçons", jovial lads, and swore they would pass the day with them. They did so, and a day it was, of boast, and swagger, and "rodomontade"."

*The word, with its alternative spelling (rhodomontade) is quoted in John Lukacs book "Five Days in London May 1940". While describing the tempestous days of Churchill's first weeks in office, Lukacs quotes Alex Cadogan, a bureaucrat with the Foreign Office, counselling Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax who was complaining that he could no longer work with Churchill. Cadogan said:::"Nonsense: his rhodomontades probably bore you as much as they do me, but don't do anything silly under the stress of that."

*William F. Buckley used the word in a May 29, 1995 column in the "National Review" entitled "What does Clinton have in mind? - Pres. Clinton's attack on conservative radio broadcasts"; Buckley, asking rhetorically who Clinton was attacking, cited one theory:::"The best those commentators could do who appeared on the MacNeil - Lehrer program was to quote an imprudent remark by Gordon Liddy, but what he said — that if any official came to his house to requisition his pistol, he'd better shoot straight — was more "rodomontade" than a call to arms or hatred." [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n10_v47/ai_16936619 What does Clinton have in mind?] , a 1995 "National Review" column using the term, via FindArticles.com]

* William Makepeace Thackeray uses the word to describe a letter written by the eponymous hero of 'The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.'.

References


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Synonyms:

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  • rodomontade — [ rɔdɔmɔ̃tad ] n. f. • 1587; de rodomont ♦ Action, propos d un rodomont. ⇒ bravade, fanfaronnade, vantardise. « Les chefs se répandent en menaces et en rodomontades » (Duhamel). ● rodomontade nom féminin (de rodomont) Littéraire. Vantardise… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • rodomontade — Rodomontade. s. f. On prononce ordinairement Rodemontade. Fanfaronnade, vanterie en fait de bravoure. Rodomontade extravagante, ridicule, outrée. il se vante d avoir tué dix hommes de sa main, c est une rodomontade. il entra dans la maison, & fit …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • Rodomontade — Rod o*mon*tade , n. [F., fr. It. rodomontana. See {Rodomont}, n.] Vain boasting; empty bluster or vaunting; rant. [1913 Webster] I could show that the rodomontades of Almanzor are neither so irrational nor impossible. Dryden. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Rodomontade — Rod o*mon*tade , v. i. To boast; to brag; to bluster; to rant. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Rodomontade — Rodomontade, s. Rodamonte …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • rodomontade — I noun bluster, boastfulness, boasting, brag, braggadocio, braggartism, bragging, bunkum, embroidery, empty talk, exaggeration, extravagance, fanfaronade, gasconade, hyperbole, inflation, jactitation, ostentation, pretense, pretension,… …   Law dictionary

  • rodomontade — 1610s, vain boasting like that of Rodomonte, character in Ariosto s Orlando Furioso (earlier rodomontado, 1590s). The name means lit. one who rolls (away) the mountain in dialectal Italian …   Etymology dictionary

  • rodomontade — *bombast, rhapsody, rant, fustian Analogous words: boasting, bragging, vaunting (see BOAST vb): vainglory, vanity, *pride: magniloquence, grandiloquence (see corresponding adjectives at RHETORICAL) …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • rodomontade — [räd΄ə mən tād′, rō΄dəmən tād′; räd΄ə məntäd′, rō΄də məntäd′] n. [Fr < rodomont, braggadocio, after It Rodomonte, boastful Saracen leader in Ariosto s Orlando Furioso] arrogant boasting or blustering, ranting talk adj. arrogantly boastful vi.… …   English World dictionary

  • RODOMONTADE — s. f. Fanfaronnade, vanterie en fait de bravoure. Rodomontade extravagante, ridicule, outrée. Il se vante d avoir tué dix hommes de sa main ; c est une rodomontade. Il entra dans la maison, et fit cent rodomontades en menaçant de battre, de tuer …   Dictionnaire de l'Academie Francaise, 7eme edition (1835)

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