"trump up" = inflate

Tue Apr 15 15:05:57 UTC 2008

So the pols are using 'trump up' to literally mean 'inflate,
exagerate' while keeping around the connotation of deceitful
fabrication?  Sounds like pol-speak to me.

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 11:22 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Subject:      Re: "trump up" = inflate
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>  <font size=3>I concede that "trump up" from v.3 in the OED has
>  only the notion of "invent":
>  "</font><font face="Plantin OUP" size=3>To get up or devise in an
>  unscrupulous way; to forge, fabricate, invent."  But
>  irregardless, as the inarticulate might say -- at some unrecorded time in
>  my past, I must have taken some instances of "trump up" to be
>  merely "exaggerate".<br><br>
>  </font>Wondering about Mark's taking (I think he's saying) the
>  "exaggerate" sense from "trumpery", I was curious
>  about the latter's etymology.  Lo:  " f. tromper trump
>  v.<b>2</b>", and "trump v.<b>2</b>" =
>  "<font face="Plantin OUP" size=3>To deceive, cheat;" and
>  "trump n.3"  "<i>Sc.</i> <i>Obs.</i> <i>rare</i>. [(?)
>  Back-formation from trumpery.]  A thing of small value, a trifle;
>  pl. goods of small value, trumpery."  This last is not far from
>  understanding "trump up" as "inflate something of small
>  significance."<br><br>
>  </font>Joel<br><br>
>  At 4/14/2008 10:22 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:<br>
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>  > At 4/14/2008 11:04 AM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:<br>
>  >  >i also suspect that most people here are unfamiliar with
>  the 'inflate,<br>
>  >  >blow up, exaggerate' sense of "trump up"; for
>  most of us, it looks<br>
>  >  >like an innovation (or a survival, or a previously
>  unencountered<br>
>  >  >dialect item).<br><br>
>  Yes, that's new ("Wrong! Wrong!" shouts the voice inside) to
>  me.<br><br>
>
> On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Joel S. Berson
>  <Berson at att.net><br>
>  wrote in reply:<br>
>  >  "Trumped up excuse/charges" is familiar and not new
>  for me, with the<br>
>  >  sense of "invented, exaggerated".  I associate
>  it with the "trump<br>
>  >  v.3" of card-playing.<br><br>
>  I associate it with "trumpery" .<br><br>
>  --<br>
>  Mark Mandel<br><br>
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