braggadocio

English edit

After Braggadocchio, boastful character in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590), apparently a pseudo-Italian coinage.

braggadocio (countable and uncountable, plural braggadocios or braggadocioes or braggadocii)

A braggart.
Synonyms: blowhard; see also Thesaurus:braggart
- 1652, Thomas Urquhart, “Εκσκυβαλαυρον (The Jewel)”, in The Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Knight‎^[1], Edinburgh: Thomas Maitland Dundrennan, published 1834, →ISBN, page 217:
  […] the Gasconads of France, Rodomontads of Spain, Fanfaronads of Italy, and Bragadochio brags of all other countries, could no more astonish his invincible heart, then would the cheeping of a mouse a bear robbed of her whelps.
Empty boasting.
Synonym: big talk
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
  He could not endure his airs as a man of fashion, and laughed heartily at his pompous braggadocio stories.
- 2015 August 27, Michael Signer, “What Happens When Donald Trump Stirs Up 'Passionate' Supporters”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:
  He’s also come to be known for his braggadocio about his net worth during his 2016 run.
- 2018 January 20, Eve Smith, “The techlash against Amazon, Facebook and Google—and what they can do”, in The Economist‎^[3]:
  Russia’s use of social media in America’s 2016 presidential race reflected particularly poorly on Facebook, which was seen as doing too little to stamp out deceptive ads and fake news stories. As for nuclear braggadocio on Twitter, let’s not even go there.

braggart — see braggart

empty boasting