Bloviation


Bloviation is a style of empty, pompous, political speech which originated in Ohio and was used by US President Warren G. Harding, who described it as "the art of speaking for as long as the occasion warrants, and saying nothing". His opponent, William Gibbs McAdoo, described "the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea."

Origin

Bloviation in Ohio was originally idle chatter. As a form of political speech, it appears in the Debates and Proceedings of the Convention for the Revision of the State of Ohio in the mid 19th century. One etymology suggests that the word is a "compound of blow, in its sense of 'to boast', with a mock-Latin ending to give it the self-important stature implicit in its meaning."

Gamalielese

lampooned Harding's bloviate style as gamalielese, from his middle name of Gamaliel. He complained that the style was suited to Ohio yokels:
In this he was responding to The New York Times which had defended Harding's style as presidential:

Gender differences

Writer Katha Pollitt speculates that men have a greater tendency to bloviate than women — possibly a result of their socialization. She supposes that this accounts in some degree to the imbalance in the gender of political opinion writers and the prevalence of male opinion in the blogosphere.