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Feb 19, 2020
This week’s themeOnomatopoeic words This week’s words faff scroop fanfaronade jape whicker “There is no material with which human beings work which has so much potential energy as words.” ~Earnest Calkins Send energy to friends & family A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargfanfaronade
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: 1. Bragging or blustering behavior. 2. Fanfare. ETYMOLOGY:
From French fanfaronnade, from Spanish fanfarronada (bluster), from
fanfarron (braggart), ultimately of imitative origin. Earliest documented
use: 1652.
USAGE:
“But what of Trump’s boast that ‘MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN
BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT
FARMERS!’? The use of ALL CAPS -- a little too insistent -- and the
employment of a description for farmers that sounds as if it was lifted
from Pravda, circa 1935, should indicate that this fanfaronade, too,
wasn’t quite on the level. And, indeed, Mexican officials told Bloomberg
News on Saturday they never discussed agricultural purchases in the days
leading up the ballyhooed accord.” Max Boot; Another Illusory Victory for Trump; The Washington Post; Jun 11, 2019. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There's nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human
existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book. -Carson McCullers,
writer (19 Feb 1917-1967)
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