hot air
noun phrase

- empty talk

Merriam-Webster

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ORIGIN

This idiom originated sometime around the latter half of the 1800s. An early citation can be found in Mark Twain’s 1873 Gilded Age:

“The most airy schemes inflated the hot air of the Capital.”

This term is routinely applied to politicians or other people of power.

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24 HOURS OF HOT AIR

On August 28, 1957, United States Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina began a speech intended to stop the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. It began at 8:54 p.m. and lasted until 9:12 p.m. the following day, for a total length of 24 hours and 18 minutes.

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SYNONYMS

all wind, amphigory, applesauce, asininity, babble, babbling, bafflegab, balderdash, balductum, balls, baloney, banality, bananas, bilge, blab, blabber, blah, blah-blah, blarney, blather, blathering, blither, blubbering, bluster, bombast, bosh, BS, bull, bullshit, buncombe, bunk, bunkum, burble, cack, cackle, candyfloss, cant, carrying-on, chin-talk, chinwagging, chitter-chatter, chuntering, circumlocution, clack, claptrap, cobblers, cod, codswallop, confab, confabulation, crapola, crud, double talk, doublespeak, dribble, drivel, drool, dross, eyewash, fatuousness, fiddle-faddle, fiddlesticks, flannel, flimflam, flummery, froth, gabble, gabbling, gabfest, garbage, gas, gibber, gibbering, gibberish, gobbledygook, guff, hocus-pocus, hogwash, horsefeathers, humbug, inanity, incoherent talk, jabber, jabbering, jibber-jabber, logorrhoea, meaningless talk, moonshine, mumbo words, nonsense talk, nuts, nuttiness, padding, pap, patter, phooey, piffle, poppycock, prattle, prolixity, quackery, rabbiting, ramblings, rigmarole, slush, smoke, stultiloquence, taradiddle, tattle, tommyrot, tosh, tripe, twaddle, twattle, verbiage, waffle, yabbering, yackety-yak, yakking, yammer, yammering, yapping, yattering

If you're still reading, you might be wondering why English has so many words associated with HOT AIR :)

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AIRY IDIOMS

The word AIR is found in a number of common phrases:

- a breath of fresh air – a refreshing change
- airhead – a foolish person
- as light as air – very light
- castles in the air – daydreams, unattainable aspirations  
- in the air – collectively felt by multiple people  
- on/off the air – on/off radio or television
- out in the open air – in public
- to air one’s dirty laundry – to share private information publicly
- to appear out of thin air – to suddenly materialise
- to disappear into thin air – to suddenly disappear
- to clear the air – to defuse a tense situation through conversation
- to come up for air – to pause while doing something, to take a break
- to dance/float/walk on air – to feel joyous, to be in a very good mood
- to get some fresh air – to go outside
- to give oneself airs – to behave snobbishly
- to be up in the air – unresolved, undecided
- with one’s nose in the air – snobbishly, superiorly


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Practice OWAD in an English conversation, say something like:

“We’re becoming so weary of all the HOT AIR from politicians that we’re not listening anymore.”

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THANKS to Jacky for suggesting today’s word...

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und VIELEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

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Paul Smith