braggadocio

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   arrogant or exaggerated boasting intended to impress others

   His threats were mostly braggadocio and ended when someone challenged him.

2. 2
   noun

   a boastful or arrogant person; a braggart

   The village braggadocio claimed he could defeat anyone in a race.

From Braggadochio, the name of a boastful knight in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, published in 1590. Spenser formed the comic name from brag with an Italianate ending; it later became a common noun for empty boasting.

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