Word Smith: Gasconade
Maureen Dowd wrote a column in the New York Times (6/29/2025) citing: “When it comes to the Middle East, presidents can’t resist indulging in gasconade.” With George Bush’s insistence on WMD’s and Donald Trump’s proclamation of Iran bomb-making ‘obliteration,’ she makes a great point.
Gasconade: the word has its origin in 1700’s French, where someone was a “Gascon,” the name for a man who was a bragger and a boaster. The term has come to mean anyone speaking with swagger, boasting and / or ostentation.
Trump’s finer points
Another word that comes to mind when we think of Trump is “bloviate,” which captures the malodorous exhale of words that engulf and extinguish life from the listening audience.
What a blowhard.
Henry E. Hooper 