Rodomontade

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌɹɒ.də.mɒnˈtɑːd/

Definitions

1. A manner of speaking marked by extravagant boasts and pretentious self-importance often involves an exaggerated display intended to impress
2. This term describes a form of verbal bravado characterized by ostentatious claims of superiority in personal achievements or qualities
3. Speech or behavior showing excessive boasting and pretentious self-importance

Etymology: Rodomontade comes from the name of a character, Rodomonte, a king of Sarza in the Italian Renaissance epic poems. In Matteo Maria Boiardo's "Orlando innamorato," which dates from 1483, Rodomonte is a fierce pagan warrior, and in Ludovico Ariosto's sequel, "Orlando furioso" (written between 1506 and 1532), he becomes a figure of bluster, forever threatening and vaunting over his enemies. Ariosto's readers and imitators came to associate his name with that swaggering talk, and the character's name became a byword for it. The word reached English through French "rodomontade," which carried the same meaning of boastful, empty bragging. A related form, "rodomontado," also exists, and the two are doublets, meaning they descend from the same source but entered the language by different routes and took on slightly different shapes.