This week’s theme
Well-traveled words

This week’s words
personalty
truchman
popinjay
arsenious
brio

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(POP-in-jay)

MEANING:

noun: Someone who indulges in vain and empty chatter.

ETYMOLOGY:

Via French and Spanish from Arabic babbaga (parrot). The last syllable changed to jay because some thought the word referred to that bird instead of a parrot. Earliest documented use: 1322.

USAGE:

“If the polls are to be believed, an intellectually unserious popinjay born on third base tops the field of candidates for the Republican nomination for president.”
Tony Norman; Trump’s Delusions Will Catch up to Him; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania); Jul 21, 2015.

See more usage examples of popinjay in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: