gasconade
See also: Gasconade
English
Alternative forms
- Gasconade
Etymology
From French gasconnade, from Gascon (“native of Gascony”) + -ade, equivalent to Gascon (“native of Gascony”) + -ade, literally "to talk like a Gascon"[1]. See French gasconnade.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ɡaskəˈneɪd/
Audio (southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪd
Noun
gasconade (countable and uncountable, plural gasconades)
- Boastful talk.
- 1652, Thomas Urquhart, “Εκσκυβαλαυρον [Ekskubalauron] (The Jewel)”, in The Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Knight, Edinburgh: Thomas Maitland Dundrennan, published 1834, →ISBN, page 217:
- […] the Gasconads of France, Rodomontads of Spain, Fanfaronads of Italy, and Bragadochio brags of all other countries, could no more astonish his invincible heart, then would the cheeping of a mouse a bear robbed of her whelps.
- 1687, Reflections on the Historical Part of Church Government, volume 5, Oxford: Theatre, page 60:
- If the Author was Jesuite enough to say this to himself, before he wrote it, he may come off. If not, it will prove a most unconscionable Gasconade. Pate a was never Bishop of Rochester, but of Worcester; he was not Banish'd, but Fed; and this not in King Edward's time, but in King Henry's.
- 1782, Jean-Jacques Rousseau [W. Cunningham Mallory], Confessions, Book III:
- "This Gasconade surprised Le Maitre — 'You'll see,' said he, whispering to me, 'that he does not know a single note.'"
- 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque, Chapter 3:
- "Just now... a cry from the opposite party who are content when they have enough, and like to look on and enjoy in the meanwhile, savours a little of bravado and gasconade."
- 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford 2004, page 816:
- Nor was the president's talk of abundant and inexhaustible resources mere gasconade.
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Translations
boastful talk
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Adjective
gasconade (comparative more gasconade, superlative most gasconade)
- (obsolete) Of or pertaining to exaggeration or extravagant boasting; bombastic.
- 1714, Richard Steele, “A Journey to Paris in 1713”, in The Lover, & Selected Papers from "The Englishman", "Town Talk", "The Reader", "The Spinster", Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers, published 1889, The Englishman, page 320:
- But Poetry and her sister arts are now in the decline; since the Gasconade style is out of date they seem quite at a stand.
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Verb
gasconade (third-person singular simple present gasconades, present participle gasconading, simple past and past participle gasconaded)
- (obsolete, derogatory) To talk boastfully.
- 1817, The Quarterly Review, review of "Wilks's Historical Sketches of the South of India", page 57:
- The Frenchman, not being able to bring the precise number, received only, as the first month's pay, 2,000 rupees. He demanded an audience, talked loud, and gasconaded.
- 1847, Dorothy (Wordsworth) Quillinan, Journal of a Few Months Residence in Portugal and Glimpses of the South of Spain,], page 246:
- […] he gasconaded on the theme of his personal exploits in the Seven Years' War of France in Spain, as if he had been as prime a sword-player as Murat […]
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Usage notes
Seldom used after the late 19th century. Appears overwhelmingly in references to the French.
Synonyms
- bluster
- boast
Translations
To talk boastfully
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References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “gasconade”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.