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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@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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