This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
gnathonic
bovarism
Mrs. Grundy
struwwelpeter
gargantua

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(BO-vuh-riz-em)

MEANING:

noun: A romanticized, unrealistic view of oneself.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Emma Bovary, the title character in Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel Madame Bovary. Earliest documented use: 1902.

USAGE:

“My own introduction to bovarism came courtesy of a boy called Bob Miller, two years above me at college, who enjoyed pretending that he was a horny-handed scion of the Tyneside proletariat and justified views on any social question with the refrain: ‘Ah’m more wukkin’ class than thee’ (his cover was eventually blown by an admissions tutor who pointed out that under ‘father’s profession’ on his UCAS form were the fatal words ‘company director’).”
D.J. Taylor; Picking at the Carrion; The Independent on Sunday (London, UK); Jul 5, 2009.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: