Gasconades

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Exaggerated boasting or bravado often intended to impress others
2. Grandiose or ostentatious displays of confidence that may lack substance
3. A form of self-aggrandizing speech or behavior characterized by embellishment and showiness

Etymology: Gasconades is the plural of "gasconade", and the singular noun carries the whole story. It comes from French "gasconnade", formed from "Gascon", a native of Gascony, the region in south-western France, plus the suffix "-ade". The literal sense was to talk like a Gascon, and the stereotype behind it was a familiar one: Gascons were widely teased across France as loud, swaggering braggarts. The regional joke became a general word for bragging. The plural simply names several such displays of bravado. The term arrived in English from French, and its meaning stayed close to that original mockery, so a gasconade is still a boastful performance rather than a neutral statement of fact.

Synonyms: boasts, brags

Antonyms: humility, modesty