Word of the Day!

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)

librocubicularist [leeb-ruh-kyoo -bic-kyoo-lah-rist]

noun:
someone who reads in bed

Examples:

I encourage you to become a librocubicularist. Whether you read physical or digital books, I recommend winding down your day in bed with a good book. It will allow your mind to forget the troubles of today as well as the challenges you'll face tomorrow. (Curtis Honeycutt, In praise of librocubicularists, The Berkshire Eagle, May 2023)

If you travel less than me and your tsundoku pile is on your bedside table, chances are that you are a librocubicularist - someone who likes to read in bed. There's something particularly relaxing about being horizontal with a book propped up in your hands, whether or not your health confines you to bed. (Shashi Tharoor, Librocubicularist, dog-earing and bibliclasm: Which type of book reader are you?, Khaleej Times, March 2022)

While my husband loves books, he is not a librocubicularist. Bedtime is lights out. I had tried small book lights and various flashlights, though never holiday candles from SEARS. Even the smallest light seems to bother him, he loves that we live in the country without even a streetlight in the entire village. (Kitty Lapin Agile, How I became a librocubicularist, Two Different Girls, December 2013)

"Are you a librocubicularist?" Miss Chapman is taken aback by the word, but another character, Helen, chimes in: "He only means you are fond of reading in bed. I've been waiting to hear him work that word in the conversation. He made it up, and he's immensely proud of it." (Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop)

Here's something I didn't know about my wife, Julie, before I married her, she's a librocubicularist. There is no known cure, but that's OK because a librocubicularist is someone who reads in bed. (Arvid Huisman, The Des Moines (Iowa) Register, 25 July 2018)

Origin:

The sesquipedalian librocubicularist is the name for a person who reads books in bed. The first syllable of the word is based on Latin liber, which originally denoted the inner bark of a tree, and later came to be used for a sheet of papyrus used for writing before acquiring the additional senses of 'book, volume, long document' and 'a division of a long literary work' (and, yes, it is the source of library and librarian). Another etymological element of librocubicularist is Latin cubiculum, meaning 'bedroom', which itself is from cubare, 'to lie' or 'to recline' and from which English cubicle is derived. Print evidence suggests librocubicularist was checked into the English language in the early 20th century, and it has yet to check out. (Merriam-Webster)