stump speech

English

Stump Speaking (1853–54), George Caleb Bingham

Etymology

From a bucolic image of a politician touring little settlements with his boilerplate speech which he delivers standing atop the stump of a chopped-down tree.

Noun

stump speech (plural stump speeches)

1. (politics, chiefly US) A standard speech by a politician running for office.
   • 2008 November 3, John M. Broder, Julie Bosman, “In States Once Reliably Red, Palin and Biden Tighten Their Stump Speeches”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     A week ago, two or three events a day was the norm for each candidate. They have shortened their stump speeches and are spending less time greeting supporters.

   • 2014, Astra Taylor, The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:

     “You're hungry and you want a burrito,” [Jeff] Jarvis exclaimed during one of his frequent stump speeches.

Translations

standard pre-election speech

• Russian: ^{(please verify)} предвы́борная ре́чь f (predvýbornaja réčʹ)

Further reading

• stump speech (politics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “stump speech”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.