boondoggle [boon-dog-uhl, -daw-guhl]

noun:
1 a wasteful and worthless project undertaken for political, corporate, or personal gain, typically a government project funded by taxpayers
2 work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy
3 a product of simple manual skill, as a plaited leather cord for the neck or a knife sheath, made typically by a camper or a scout
verb:
to deceive or attempt to deceive

Examples:

These subsidies are a boondoggle for taxpayers, who have spent nearly $30 billion on stadiums over the past 34 years, not counting property-tax exemptions or federal revenues lost to tax-exempt municipal bonds. (Dan Moore, Taxpayers Are About to Subsidize a Lot More Sports Stadiums, The Atlantic, October 2022)

Admittedly, he explains, "many of these boondoggles were hare-brained ideas to begin with, others were solid ideas that went wrong operationally or were short of financing," a not unusual problem in the Atlantic provinces. (Burton K Janes, The boondoggles of Newfoundland and Labrador, Saltwire, September 2017)

Some commentators have called for the Olympics - or, to be more blunt, the IOC's financial boondoggle - to be scrapped altogether. (Ishaan Tharoor, Japan's Olympics kick off amid a cascade of disasters, Washington Post, July 2021)

No matter how well you plan, something will boondoggle in unexpected ways. But having a plan means that you can improvise a solution. (Renee Bates, Favorite Finds - In Nashville, Hersavvy, June 2014)

The United States has not embarked upon its formidable program of space exploration in order to make or perpetuate a gigantic astronautic boondoggle. There are good reasons, hard reasons for this program. (George Saintsbury, 'The Practical Values of Space Exploration: Report of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, US House of Representatives, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Second Session')

Origin:

When boondoggle popped up in the early 1900s, lots of people tried to explain where the word came from. One theory traced it to an Ozarkian word for 'gadget', while another related it to the Tagalog word that gave us boondocks. Another hypothesis suggested that boondoggle came from the name of leather toys Daniel Boone supposedly made for his dog. But the only theory that is supported by evidence is much simpler. In the 1920s, Robert Link, a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America, apparently coined the word to name the braided leather cords made and worn by scouts. The word came to prominence when such a boondoggle was presented to the Prince of Wales at the 1929 World Jamboree, and it's been with us ever since. Over time, it developed the additional sense describing a wasteful or impractical project. (Merriam-Webster)

behemoth [bih-hee-muhth, bee-uh-]

noun:
1 a mighty animal described in Job 40:15–24 as an example of the power of God
2 any creature or thing of monstrous size or power

Examples:

He praised the Strand for "standing up against a behemoth like Amazon. I mean, the fact that they still exist is impressive." (Micah Hauser, Is the Strand a Landmark?, The New Yorker, March 2019)

Built in phases between 1929 and the mid 1950s, London’s Battersea Power Station is, in a word, a behemoth. For scale, the entirety of St Paul's Cathedral could fit neatly within the plant's vast boiler house. (Mayer Rus, Tour a Fresh, Contemporary Home That's Located in a London Landmark, Architectural Digest, August 2023)

Here's a descending list of the world's biggest, heaviest and longest snakes, from the smallest of the serpent giants through to the largest to have ever existed - a behemoth the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex. (Emma Bryce, The biggest snake in the world (and 10 other giant serpents), Architectural Digest, April 2024)

He tells the tedious story of how, before the birth of Man, the world used to be ruled by colossal behemoth monsters, monsters hundreds of miles long! (David H Keller, 'The Last Magician')

A dozen candles burned themselves to death on the shelf before me. Each of my breaths made them tremble. To them, I was a behemoth, to frighten and destroy. (Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings)

Far beneath, they saw a colossal structure of curved and glittering girders, like the strangely articulated bones of a metal behemoth outstretched along the bottom of the pit. (Clark Ashton Smith, Vulthoom)

Origin:

late 14c, huge biblical beast (Job xl.15), from Latin behemoth, from Hebrew b'hemoth, usually taken as plural of intensity of b'hemah 'beast'. But the Hebrew word is perhaps a folk etymology of Egyptian pehemau, literally 'water-ox,' the name for the hippopotamus. Used in modern English for any huge beast. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

In the biblical book of Job, Behemoth is the name of a powerful grass-eating, river-dwelling beast with bones likened to bronze pipes and limbs likened to iron bars. Scholars have speculated that the biblical creature was inspired by the hippopotamus, but details about the creature’s exact nature are vague. The word first passed from Hebrew into Latin, where, according to 15th century English poet and monk John Lydgate it referred to 'a beast rude full of cursednesse'. In modern English, behemoth mostly functions as an evocative term for something of monstrous size, power, or appearance. (Merriam-Webster)

braggadocio [brag-uh-doh-shee-oh]

noun:
1 empty boasting; bragging
2 a boasting person; braggart

Examples:

Cruz spins these operations into digital content ranging from tips for aspiring investors to plain old-fashioned yacht-flaunting braggadocio. (Michael Friedrich, The Landlords of Social Media Seem Happy to Play the Villain, The New York Times Magazine, October 2023)

And yet among the endless braggadocio and machismo there is something quite touching, even charming, about his intense relationship with himself. Unlike, say, Cristiano Ronaldo, the vanity comes with an appreciation of the absurd. (Andrew Anthony, Adrenaline by Zlatan Ibrahimović review - he doesn't just talk a good game, The Guardian, August 2022)

There was bluster, bombast and beer for his horses and for those who hoisted a red Solo cup. And there were tender, deeply romantic ballads as well as braggadocio, seasoned with a taste of humor. (Jon Bream, Remembering Toby Keith: Bluster, beer and horse sense, Star Tribune, Febriary 2024)

The braggadocio aspect is important: a successful but modest man is ordinarily not called a k'nocker. A k'nocker is someone who works crossword puzzles - with a pen (especially if someone is watching). (Leo Rosten, The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated)

Origin:

1590, coined by Spenser as the name of his personification of vainglory ('Faerie Queene', ii.3), from brag, with augmentative ending from Italian words then in vogue in English. In general use by 1594 for 'an empty swaggerer'; of the talk of such persons, from 1734. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Though Braggadocio is not as well-known as other fictional characters like Pollyanna, the Grinch, or Scrooge, in lexicography he holds a special place next to them as one of the many characters whose name has become an established word in English. The English poet Edmund Spenser originally created Braggadocio as a personification of boasting in his epic poem The Faerie Queene. As early as 1594, about four years after the poem was published, English speakers began using the name as a general term for any blustering blowhard. The now more common use of braggadocio, referring to the talk or behavior of such 'windy cockalorums', developed in the early 18th century. (Merriam-Webster)