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braggadocious
noun & adjective

- boastful or arrogant

(Oxford English Dictionary)

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Braggadocious is a late 16th century word that derives from the name of a braggart in Spenser's The Faerie Queene. The expression was likely formed by combing brag (or braggart) + the Italian suffix -occio, which denotes something large of its kind.

Of course, braggadocious is not the only word in English that derives from a person, real or fictional. Below are a few examples of others that may or may not be familiar:

- chauvinist = absolutely devoted to a cause. Named after Nicolas Chauvin, a character in a 19th century play who is devoted to Napoleon.

- bowdlerise = to delete written matter considered indelicate. Named after Thomas Bowdler, English editor of an expurgated Shakespeare (1825).

- Machiavellian = attempting to achieve what one wants by cunning, scheming and unscrupulous methods. From the name of the Italian statesman and writer Nico Machiavelli (1469-1527), whose work The Prince (1532) advises that acquiring and exercising power may require unethical methods.

- malapropism = a humorously mispronounced or misused word or phrase. From Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the play The Rivals by Irish dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816).

- bedlam = a scene or state of wild uproar and confusion. After the popular name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, which served as an insane asylum in the 15th century.

- silhouette = the outline or general shape of something. Named after Étienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), French Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV, because the victims of his taxes were reduced to mere shadows of themselves.

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SYNONYMS

arrogant, big-headed, boastful, cocky, conceited, egoistic, puffed-up, vainglorious

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today, say something like:

"He may have an attitude problem, his previous employer used the word 'braggadocious'."