rodomontade

noun

ro·​do·​mon·​tade ˌrä-də-mən-ˈtād 

ˌrō-,

-ˈtäd

variants or less commonly rhodomontade

1

: a bragging speech

2

: vain boasting or bluster : rant

Did you know?

Rodomontade (which can also be spelled rhodomontade) originated in Italian poetry. Rodomonte was a fierce and boastful king in Orlando Innamorato, Count Matteo M. Boiardo's late 15th century epic, and later in the 1516 sequel Orlando Furioso, written by poet Lodovico Ariosto. In the late 16th century, English speakers began to use rodomont as a noun meaning "braggart." Soon afterwards, rodomontade entered the language as a noun meaning "empty bluster" or "bragging speech," and later as an adjective meaning "boastful" or "ranting."

Synonyms

• bluster
• bombast
• brag
• braggadocio
• bull [slang]
• cockalorum
• fanfaronade
• gas
• gasconade
• grandiloquence
• hot air
• magniloquence
• rant

Examples of rodomontade in a Sentence

for all of its jingoistic rodomontade, the government had no thought-out plan for the war and its aftermath

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

1591, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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