It's the Word of the Day podcast for January 28th.

Today's word is Bombast, spelled B-O-M-B-A-S-T.

Bombast is a noun. It's a formal word that refers to speech or writing that is meant to sound

important or impressive, but that is not sincere or meaningful. Here's the word used in a sentence

from Newsweek quoting P.J. Blunt. This is bombast that has not been thought through from a policy perspective.

I know that many in the space community find this to be exciting and want to believe the hype behind such an announcement.

Mars is exciting. However, I think we have to ask ourselves whether getting to Mars is worth the moral costs, in addition to the

economic costs and potential risks to human lives. The word bombast settled softly into English

in the mid-to-late 16th century as a textile term used to refer to cotton or other soft fibrous material used as padding or stuffing.

Its ultimate source is likely the middle Persian noun, Pambak, meaning cotton.

But within a decade, it had extended from literal stuffing to figurative stuffing,

referring to speech or writing that is padded with

pretentious verbiage. The adjective bombastic, which followed bombast a century later, has been a

favorite choice to describe blowhards, bloaters, and cockalorums ever since. With your word of the

day, I'm Peter Sokoloski.

Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.