Wiktionary

blague

See also: blagué

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French blague. Doublet of belly.

Noun

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blague (countable and uncountable, plural blagues)

  1. Mendacious boasting that lacks seriousness; falsehood or humbug, especially when it is told mockingly or without the expectation that anyone believes it.
    • 1855, Sketches of the Italian Revolution, page 78:
      The difference is this: one may be obliged to maintain a falsehood from feelings of pride or self-respect, but a blague can be given up without a scruple.
    • 1913, Lizzy Lind-af-Hageby, August Strindberg, the Spirit of Revolt:
      I wonder if the cholera-sick fishing harbour is so sweet, after all! Blague probably. Blague, blague! Brides, love, Naples, joie de vivre, ancient, modern, liberal, conservative, ideal, real, natural—blague. Blague all the way.
    • 1992, Philippe Hamon-Page, Expositions: Literature and Architecture in Nineteenth-century France, page 180:
      The blague differs from the laughter of, say, Hugo's L'Homme qui rit, just as it is distinct from irony, which is never coarse or untrue, and indeed presupposes a whole shared system of values.
    • 2008, Geoffrey Hill, Kenneth Haynes, Collected Critical Writings, page 257:
      But whereas blague, as Pound seems to envisage it, begins with pomp and ends in derision, this poem emerges from circumstances of derision

Verb

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blague (third-person singular simple present blagues, present participle blaguing, simple past and past participle blagued)

  1. To utter blague; to tell a falsehood that no one seriously believes; to bullshit.
    • 1899, John Hay, The Bread-winners: A Social Study, page 95:
      "Yes," said Farnham, "so the woman told me, and she added that they were authentic of the twelfth century. asked her if she could not throw off a century or two in consideration of the hard times, and she laughed, and said I blagued, and honestly she didn't know how old they were, but it was dro^le, tout de me^me, qu'on pu^t adorer un petit bon Dieu d'une laideur pareille."
    • 1901, Honoré de Balzac, A Start in Life, page 84:
      "When he blagued just now about his crosses, I thought there was something in him,” whispered the Eastern hero to the painter.
    • 2013, Simon Halliday, City Centre, page 166:
      I left the ward with a heavy heart, though blagued to my mother later that he had been in good spirits .
    • 2013, Geoff Berner, Festival Man:
      After I had blagued and bullshitted Sandy and his wife for a while with various half-truths, red herrings. and false promises, and they had yelled at me, and I had yelled at them, they finally had to let me go, since Sandy, who is still quite slight of build and has replaced booze with weed, was not going to hit me, after all.
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Translations

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Translations

Anagrams

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French

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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18th century, from Dutch balg. The sense “joke” (ca. 1800) from the notion of something puffed up, hence vain, fanciful.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /blaɡ/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɡ

Noun

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blague f (plural blagues)

  1. pouch, especially for tobacco
  2. joke
    Synonyms: plaisanterie f, (North America) joke f
  3. (Louisiana, Cajun) a penis
    Synonym: pénis m

Derived terms

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Verb

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blague

  1. inflection of blaguer:
    1. first/third-person singular
    2. second-person imperative
    3. first/third-person subjunctive

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Italian: blaga, → blague
  • → Polish: blaga

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Italian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from French blague.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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blague f (plural blagues)

  1. a humorous brag

Further reading

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  • blague in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
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