Pompous

How to spell pompous

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pompous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pompous mean?

1. adjectiveBehaving or speaking in an arrogant, self-important way, as though one is more grand or worthy than others.

Pompous in a sentence

• The new manager came across as pompous during every meeting.

• His pompous speech bored the entire wedding party.

Where does pompous come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin pompa, meaning a solemn procession or grand display, which Latin had in turn borrowed from the Greek pompe, literally 'a sending' or 'a parade', built on the verb pempein 'to send'. In its earliest use a 'pomp' was a magnificent public spectacle, and the adjective pompous, reaching English through Old French pompeux in the late 1300s, first described things that were genuinely splendid and ceremonious. Over time the sense soured: what was once admiring praise of magnificence curdled into mockery of people who put on airs, so that by the 1600s pompous mostly meant self-important and inflated. The original neutral root still survives in the noun 'pomp', as in 'pomp and circumstance'. The spelling trap is the second p hidden in the middle and the bland -ous ending, which a writer can easily reduce to 'pompus' by ear.

How the word is built

• pomp (grand display, from Latin pompa)
• -ous (adjective suffix: full of)