51吃瓜 of the Day
rodomontade
noun
vainglorious boasting or bragging; pretentious, blustering talk.
More about rodomontade
Rodomontade, 鈥渧ainglorious boasting, bragging,鈥� is also occasionally spelled rhodomontade (as if it were from Greek 谤丑贸诲辞苍 鈥渞ose鈥�) and rodomontado; it comes from Middle French rodomont, from Italian rodomonte 鈥渂ully,鈥� from Rodomonte, the name of the courageous but boastful king of Algiers in Ariosto鈥檚 Orlando Furioso 鈥淩oland in Frenzy, Raging Roland,鈥� 1516. Orlando Furioso is a continuation of an earlier Renaissance Italian epic Orlando Innamorato 鈥淩oland in Love,鈥� by Matteo Boiardo, one of whose major characters is Rodomonte, also spelled Rodamontre, and popularly interpreted to mean 鈥渕ountain roller,鈥� from Italian rodare, from Latin 谤辞迟腻谤别, from rota 鈥渨heel,鈥� and Italian monte, from Latin mons (stem mont-) 鈥渕ount, mountain.鈥� Rodomontade entered English in the late 16th century.
how is rodomontade used?
I am charmed to notice that things that were once said to matter鈥攆amiliarity with epigrams, knowledge of rhetorical devices and their terrifying names, the ability to display a rich vocabulary without 谤辞诲辞尘辞苍迟补诲别鈥�seem to matter still.
because she has amused him with some rodomontade about despising rank and wealth in matters of love and marriage, he flatters himself that she’s devotedly attached to him.
rodomontade
backlins
adverb
Scot. and North England.
backward; back.
More about backlins
The extremely rare Scottish and northern English dialect adverb backlins, 鈥渂ack, backward,鈥� comes from the equally rare Old English adverb 产忙肠濒颈苍驳, used only in the adverbial phrase on 产忙肠濒颈苍驳 鈥渙n the back, behind, backward.鈥� On 产忙肠濒颈苍驳, moreover, occurs only in the Rushworth Gospels (ca. 975), in the Northumbrian dialect of Old English鈥攏ot even in late West Saxon, the standard literary dialect of Old English. Backlins is formed from the noun back, the uncommon adverb suffix –ling, as in middling, and the native English adverb suffix –s, as in always, sometimes.
how is backlins used?
Then backlins we hastened weel pleased wi the day, / Though some of our brithers had wandered away.
An auld man’s howff’s a tapsalteerie touer: / Time backlins gaes, my warld turns withershins, / Glaur’s in the lift, sterns skeenkle in the stour …
backlins
plaudit
noun
Usually plaudits.
an enthusiastic expression of approval: Her portrayal of Juliet won the plaudits of the critics.
More about plaudit
The noun plaudit, 鈥渁 round of applause; an enthusiastic expression of approval,鈥� first appears in print in English in 1600. It comes from the slightly earlier noun plaudite (pronounced as three syllables and probably pronounced plawditee), which appears in 1567. Plaudite comes straight from Latin plaudite 鈥渁pplaud!鈥�, the second person plural imperative of the verb plaudere 鈥渢o clap, clap (in approval), pat (on the back), beat (wings).鈥� Roman comic actors would cry plaudite to the audience at the end of a play. Plaudere, which has no reliable etymology, has an alternative form 辫濒艒诲别谤别, as in ex辫濒艒诲别谤别, 鈥渢o drive off the stage (by clapping, hissing, hooting), reject, eject鈥� (the modern sense “to burst violently; blow up” does not exist in Latin).
how is plaudit used?
On Tuesday, Dustin Hoffman and Mila Kunis became the latest A-listers to get plaudits for their recent acts of decency.
The ideologically divided [Supreme] court zigs left or right and earns cheers from the winning partisans. Then it zags in the other direction, and the plaudits turn to brickbats.
plaudit