A New Word to Add to Your Lexicon

T-R-U-M-P-E-R-Y:  You Not Going to Believe This!

I think of myself as having a fairly good vocabulary, not Christopher Hitchens level, but I would say better than average, at least. I do a lot of reading, and I am always at the ready with my “Oxford Dictionary of English” (with Thesaurus, of course) when I inevitably come across words that are either new to me or that I have already looked up, perhaps a long time ago, and have forgotten their meaning. As I age, I find this happens much more frequently.  “Hooray” for aging! Just another perk of getting older.

Occasionally, I do run into a new word, one I’ve never heard before and have no idea of its’ meaning. And recently some very close friends of mine introduced me to a new word, although I’m not sure where they heard it or read it, but they are both pretty smart and extremely well read so I thought I’ll roll with it. I must admit, I thought it was a joke until I looked it up in my trusty OED, and found this:

T R U M P E R Y (archaic)

Noun:

• Attractive articles of little value or use.
• Practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real value or worth

Adjective:

• Showy but worthless: trumpery jewelry.
• Delusive or shallow: that trumpery hope which lets us dupe ourselves.

Ringing any bells? The obvious application was just too much to overlook. I understand the “A rose by any other name”but I thought this to be nothing less than a message from the Universe! What could possibly describe the felonious, useless, empty-suit, currently occupying the White House better than his own name and what are the chances of such a coincidence? Consider that “Trump” was the name chosen by his grandfather when their actual name, “Drumpf”, evoked severe anti-German sentiment before and during WWI. Interestingly, the Fat Felon’s grandfather emigrated to the United States specifically to avoid mandatory compulsory service in the German military. I guess draft dodging runs in the family. In conclusion, you can expect to hear or read this word much more frequently from this point forwards.  Some things are just meant to be, I guess.