Ostentatious

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Dr. Goodword
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Ostentatious

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:15 pm

• ostentatious •


Pronunciation: ah-stin-tay-shês • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Spectacularly gaudy, pretentious, showy, tastelessly overdone just to attract attention.

Notes: Today's word is the adjective for the noun ostentation. It differs from hype in that it usually refers to visual overstatement and pretension; that is, it usually refers to show rather than tell. There is an adverb: you may dress or entertain ostentatiously. Do not confuse this word with a related one, ostensible, which means "apparent, seeming".

In Play: Ostentation is luxury overdone: "The hotel we stayed in was luxurious, but when they ran strings of tiny lights around everything in the lobby, it became outright ostentatious." This word's sense of "showy" applies to anything visible or auditory: "The ostentatious lifestyle of Robin Banks ultimately attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities."

Word History: This Good Word comes from Latin ostentatio "a pompous display" from ob- "before" + tendere "to stretch, extend, spread out". The original Proto-Indo-European stem that tendere comes from was something like ten- "stretch", also seen in extend and tension. Tetanus comes from Greek tetanos "stiff, rigid" with a reduplicated prefix, the state of something stretched. When you stretch a string (which in Greek is tonos), you can produce a tone from it. In Persian, the [n] was replaced by an [r], resulting in tar "string", a word found in the Hindi word sitar, a string instrument of India, often intricately carved and bejeweled ostentatiously.
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David Myer
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Re: Ostentatious

Postby David Myer » Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:15 am

Yes, the 'gaudy', 'showy' definitions are close to the mark if modern usage can be a guide - ostentation seems to me very much a visual thing. Ostentatious dress rather than say, speech or writing. Something that seeks to draw attention to itself by its appearance. But interestingly that is not borne out in the Latin etymology.

Philip Hudson
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Re: Ostentatious

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Jan 12, 2022 1:53 pm

Isn't the word ostentatious rather ostentatious?
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Ostentatious

Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Jan 12, 2022 2:00 pm

:D
Isn't the word ostentatious rather ostentatious?
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Slava
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Re: Ostentatious

Postby Slava » Wed Jan 12, 2022 2:24 pm

I've decided that one way to define flamboyant would be "ostentatiously ostentatious".
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Re: Ostentatious

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:31 pm

Whatever happened to humility? Not the Uriah Heep kind but the real McCoy.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

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Slava
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Re: Ostentatious

Postby Slava » Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:46 pm

You'll have to ask someone like the Dalai Lama about that one. It's quite rare.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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