Alvin Gentry was head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans from 2015-2020. He was hired after winning the NBA championship as an assistant coach under Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. During his time in New Orleans the team was plagued by injuries and used 140 different starting lineups. When Gentry was fired in August 2020, Scott Kushner wrote, “Gentry is not a coach to hold hands, bloviate with stern lectures or meticulously guide a young team through the developmental process.”
Bloviate means to speak or write verbosely and windily. It seems to have been used for the first time in 1845. The term probably derives from a combination of the word “blow” plus the suffix “ate.” “Ate” has been added to words to indicate acting in a specific way or causing modification. Blow describes the movement of air with speed or force. Bloviate, when connected to speaking, takes on the sense of boastful and verbose, to talk at length, especially in an inflated or windy way.
Joseph Stephen Farmer, a British lexicographer, noted bloviate in his work Slang and its Analogues (seven volumes from 1890-1904). He defined it as a Midwestern word for "to talk aimlessly and boastingly; to indulge in 'high falutin'.”
Bloviate seemed to have dropped out of fashion by the late 1800s. However, it enjoyed a revival early in the 1920s during the presidency of Warren G. Harding. Harding grew up in Ohio, where bloviate simply meant to spend time idly or in idle chatter. So, Harding used it in that sense. But others used it as derogatory of the president since Harding’s speeches tended to the long-winded side. Also, Harding wrote ornate prose, described as bloviate. e.e. Cummings (American poet 1894-1962) eulogized him as "The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors.”
Harding later used bloviate against his political opponents, when he accused them as "having the art of speaking for as long as the occasion warrants and saying nothing.” William Gibbs McAdoo, leader of the Progressive movement, then compared the bloviate speeches of Harding to "an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea.”
American satirist H.L. Mencken compared Harding’s style as bloviate, better suited to Ohio yokels and not presidential speech. “He acquired a gift for the sort of discourse that is to their taste. It is a kind of baby talk, a puerile and wind-blown gibberish. In sound it is like a rehearsal by a country band, with only the bass-drummer keeping time. In content it is a vacuum.”
Bloviate again faded from use after the Harding era. Then came Donald Trump. In 2012 on "This Week," ABC News' George Will called Donald Trump a "bloviating ignoramus." Will was questioning why presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was associating with the real estate mogul, who continued to question President Obama's birthplace. Donald Trump has continued to live up to the term with his presidential speeches and commentary on American politics.
On the website “Grandiloquent Word of the Day” (For the entertainment and education of all who love language through the use of illustrated vocabulary) bloviate is described as “to write or blather on at length, especially in a windy, pompous, overbearing, inflated, or empty way.” You may have attended a meeting or had a conversation that were it not for bloviation, the entire gathering would have been utterly silent.
Synonyms for bloviate can be pontificate, harangue, fulminate, bluster, rant, spout, blare, rage, and storm. If you use words wisely, you can avoid any connection to bloviate in your speaking or writing. Hopefully you do not find this column to be bloviate but filled with interesting nuggets for your reading enjoyment.
Columnist John Kreutzwieser loves to research words and writes this weekly Word Wisdom column for Moose Jaw Express/MooseJawToday.com. He has an interest in the usage, origin, and relevance of words for society today. Greek and Latin form the basis of many words, with ancient Hebrew shedding light on word usage.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com . Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
