It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for March 29th.

Today's word is

today's word is Braggadocio, also pronounced Braggadocio or Braggadocchio, and spelled B R A G G D O C I O. Braggadocchio is a noun. It refers to brash and self-confident boasting, that is, the annoying or

exaggerated talk of someone who is trying to sound very proud or brave. Here's the word used in a sentence from the

Lincoln Nebraska Journal Star. In total Lil Wayne has sold more than 120 million

albums making him one of the world's top-selling artists.

And his braggadocchio aside, he's widely considered one of the most influential hip-hop artists

of his generation, and one of the greatest

rappers of all time. Though Braggadocchio is not as well known as other

fictional characters like Pollyanna, The Grinch, or Scrooge.

In lexicography he holds a special place next to them as one of the many characters whose

name has become an established word in English. The English poet Edmund Spencer

originally created Braggadocchio as a personification of boasting in his epic

poem, The Fairy Queen. As early as 1594, about four years after the poem was published,

English speakers began using the name as a general term for any blustering blowhard. The now more common use of Braggadocchio,

referring to the talk or behavior of such windy cockolorums developed in the early 18th century.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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