Friday word: Rhodomontade

[med_cat]

Rhodomontade (n): variation of rodomontade: (\ˌrä-də-mən-ˈtād, ˌrō-, -ˈtäd\)

1: a bragging speech
2: vain boasting or bluster : rant

Etymology:

French, from Middle French, from rodomont blusterer, from Italian Rodomonte, character in Orlando Innamorato by Matteo M. Boiardo

First Known Use: 1612

Example:
~~
However, that was my view at the time. I had a dreadful first experience of platform speaking on a large scale, for at a huge meeting at the Amphitheatre, the candidate, Sir
William Crossman, was delayed, and to prevent a fiasco I was pushed on at a moment's notice to face an audience of 3,000 people. It was one of the tight corners of my life. I hardly knew myself what I said, but the Irish part of me came to my aid and supplied me with a torrent of more or less incoherent words and similes which roused the audience greatly, though it read to me afterwards more like a comic stump speech than a serious political effort. But it was what they wanted and they were mostly on their feet before I finished. I was amazed when I read it next day, and especially the last crowning sentence which was: " England and Ireland are wedded together with the sapphire wedding ring of the sea, and what God has placed together let no man pluck asunder."

It was not very good logic but whether it was eloquence or rodomontade I could not even now determine.

(From Arthur Conan Doyle's wonderful autobiography, "Memories and Adventures", bold lettering's mine)

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Orlando Innamorato and its better-known sequel, Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto.

---L.

[med_cat]

Thank you for the info :)

(and fixed the "Frida" to "Friday", sorry!)