Weekly Word: Rodomontade

Rodomontade is “vainglorious boasting or bragging”. It’s also an adjective meaning “bragging”, and as a verb it means “to brag”.

Merriam-Webster picked it as their word of the day a while ago, explaining its origin 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 sequel Orlando Furioso, written by poet Lodovico Ariosto in 1516. In the late 16th century, English speakers began to use "rodomont" as a noun meaning "braggart." Soon afterwards, "rodomontade" entered the language.... The noun "rodomont" is no longer used in English, but "rodomontade" is still with us.

This reminds me of another word I learned a while ago: thrasonical, which means “boastful” and is also named after a fictional character.