"trump up" = inflate

[Joel S. Berson]

I'm sorry you're so snippy this morning.  Since you clearly wrote "i
also suspect that most people here are *unfamiliar* [emphasis added]
with the 'inflate, blow up, exaggerate' sense of "trump up" [etc.]",
I supposed it was worth saying that someone on this list was, and
from where he thought it arose.

Joel


At 4/14/2008 12:01 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>On Apr 14, 2008, at 8:50 AM, Joel Berson wrote:
>
>>At 4/14/2008 11:04 AM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>>>i also suspect that most people here are unfamiliar with the
>>>'inflate,
>>>blow up, exaggerate' sense of "trump up"; for most of us, it looks
>>>like an innovation (or a survival, or a previously unencountered
>>>dialect item).  the comments so far suggest that it's a combo (of
>>>some
>>>sort) of the widespread "trump up" 'invent' and "trumpet", perhaps
>>>influenced by by some other V+"up" combinations.
>>
>>"Trumped up excuse/charges" is familiar and not new for me, with the
>>sense of "invented, exaggerated".  I associate it with the "trump
>>v.3" of card-playing.
>
>yes, and i said exactly that, just before the material you cite above
>(in which the "also suspect" refers back to this earlier material).
>to repeat:
>
>i suspect that everyone here has the sense of "trump up" that you do
>-- OED's 'to get up or devise in an unscupulous way; to forge,
>fabricate, invent'.  especially common in the adjective "trumped-up",
>as in a trumped-up story or charge.  (the OED derives this verb
>"trump" from the noun "trump" as used in card-playing, but it admits
>that the development of some of its senses is unclear.)  other
>dictionaries have similar definitions for "trump up".
>
>[note: i suspect that everyone here has this sense, and said so, i
>think very clearly.  we don't really need to have a poll of people who
>have this sense.]
>
>arnold
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org