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Hello, on yesterday's episode when Chris and Alex and I were previewing Donald Trump's

state visit, which is now actually happening, I use the phrase pomp and ceremony.

Now, I did that because yesterday I went on a rant saying that today everyone would be using the phrase pump and ceremony because there's no other words to describe it.

And so I thought, do you know what? I need to make peace with that phrase.

And so that's why I said it as a little sort of inside joke to myself.

But then we thought, actually, where does the word pomp actually come from?

This word that we throw around like plentiful confetti on a day like this.

So we called up dictionary corners Susie Dent.

And of course, she knew where it came from.

Well, the dictionary will tell you that pomp has been used since the early 1300s for a splendid display.

It reaches a Greek word meaning ascending,

so you send out all your flashest, most impressive things. But it had, particularly at the

beginning, pretty negative connotations most of the time. So it was ostentatious or boastful

show or vain glory. And pomp was frequently coupled with the word

pride. He is, after all, a sibling of the word pompous. And it was also used as a processions and

public shows and spectacles that were thought to be held under the patronage of the devil. In other words,

you shouldn't go near them because they were all

show and no substance. And only in the 18th century did it really come to describe something

that was just objectively splendid or impressive, a pageant or a triumphant procession.

And the phrase pomp and circumstances really thanks to Edward Elgar, who used that

phrase as a subtitle for the popular military marches that he composed. Interestingly, though,

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