gasconade

• Gasconade

From French gasconnade, from Gascon (“native of Gascony”) +‎ -ade, equivalent to Gascon (“native of Gascony”) +‎ -ade, literally "to talk like a Gascon".[1] See French gasconnade.

• IPA^(key): /ɡæskəˈneɪd/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -eɪd

gasconade (countable and uncountable, plural gasconades)

1. Boastful talk.
   • 1652, Thomas Urquhart, “Εκσκυβαλαυρον [Ekskubalauron] (The Jewel)”, in The Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Knight‎, Edinburgh: Thomas Maitland Dundrennan, published 1834, →ISBN, page 217:

     […] the Gasconads of France, Rodomontads of Spain, Fanfaronads of Italy, and Bragadochio brags of all other countries, could no more astonish his invincible heart, then would the cheeping of a mouse a bear robbed of her whelps.

   • 1687, Reflections on the Historical Part of Church Government‎, volume 5, Oxford: Theatre, page 60:

     If the Author was Jesuite enough to say this to himself, before he wrote it, he may come off. If not, it will prove a most unconscionable Gasconade. Pate ^a was never Bishop of Rochester, but of Worcester; he was not Banish'd, but Fed; and this not in King Edward's time, but in King Henry's.

   • 1782, Jean-Jacques Rousseau [W. Cunningham Mallory], Confessions‎, archived from the original on 8 September 2007, Book III:

     "This Gasconade surprised Le Maitre — 'You'll see,' said he, whispering to me, 'that he does not know a single note.'"

   • 1874–1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 3, in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC:

     "Just now... a cry from the opposite party who are content when they have enough, and like to look on and enjoy in the meanwhile, savours a little of bravado and gasconade."

   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford 2004, page 816:

     Nor was the president's talk of abundant and inexhaustible resources mere gasconade.

   • 2020, Barton Gellman, Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State, Penguin, →ISBN, page 200:

     The message is a gamer's gasconade: We cheat, we steal, we eat your lunch.

gasconade (comparative more gasconade, superlative most gasconade)

1. (obsolete) Of or pertaining to exaggeration or extravagant boasting; bombastic.
   • 1714, Richard Steele, “A Journey to Paris in 1713”, in The Lover, & Selected Papers from "The Englishman", "Town Talk", "The Reader", "The Spinster"‎, Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers, published 1889, The Englishman, page 320:

     But Poetry and her sister arts are now in the decline; since the Gasconade style is out of date they seem quite at a stand.

gasconade (third-person singular simple present gasconades, present participle gasconading, simple past and past participle gasconaded)

1. (obsolete, derogatory) To talk boastfully.

   Synonyms: bluster, boast

   • 1817, The Quarterly Review‎, review of "Wilks's Historical Sketches of the South of India", page 57:

     The Frenchman, not being able to bring the precise number, received only, as the first month's pay, 2,000 rupees. He demanded an audience, talked loud, and gasconaded.

   • 1847, Dorothy (Wordsworth) Quillinan, Journal of a Few Months Residence in Portugal and Glimpses of the South of Spain‎, page 246:

     […] he gasconaded on the theme of his personal exploits in the Seven Years' War of France in Spain, as if he had been as prime a sword-player as Murat […]

   • 1986, Michael Beschloss, Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair‎, page 64:

     For two hours, [Khrushchev] gasconaded about the tenfold revaluation of the ruble and the abolition of the Soviet income tax by 1965.

• Seldom used after the late 19th century. Appears overwhelmingly in references to the French.

• gasconader