braggadocio [ˌbrægəˈdoʊʃiˌoʊ] n.
1.) A braggart.
2.) Empty or pretentious bragging.
3.) A swaggering, cocky manner (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).
Etymology: Alteration of Braggadocchio, the personification of vainglory in The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, from brag.
"—Mattie: It is the same idea as a coon hunt. You are just trying to make your work sound harder than it is. Here is the money. I aim to get Tom Chaney and if you are not game I will find somebody who is game. All I have heard out of you so far is talk. I know you can drink whiskey and snore and spit and wallow in filth and bemoan your station. The rest has been braggadocio. They told me you had grit and that is why I came to you. I am not paying for talk. I can get all the talk I need and more at the Monarch Boarding House" (True Grit, Joel Cohen and Ethan Cohen, 2010).
(Prinz Arthur und die Feenkönigin, Johann Heinrich Füssli, ~1788)
credo quia absurdum [ˈkreɪ:dəʊ 'kwiə æbˈsɜːdəm] int. also credo quia absurdum est
1.) 'I believe because it is absurd' (Dictionary of Foreign Words, Adrian Room, 2000).
Etymology: Latin, from credo, 1st person singular present indicative of credere, to believe + quia, because + absurdum, absurd. The phrase is a misquotation from Tertullian's On The Flesh of Christ, ~206. The actual quote is "Crucifixus est dei filius; non pudet, quia pudendum est. Et mortuus est dei filius; credibile prorsus est, quia ineptum est. Et sepultus resurrexit; certum est, quia impossibile." (The Son of God was crucified; I am not ashamed, because it is shameful. The Son of God died; it is immediately credible, because it is silly. He was buried, and rose again; it is certain, because it is impossible.")
"Many have no doubt attained to that humility which says: credo quia absurdum est and sacrificed their reason to it: but, so far as I know, no one has yet attained to that humility which says credo quia absurdus sum, though it is only one step further" (Daybreak by Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale (trans.), 1982).
(Die Jungfrau züchtigt das Jesuskind vor drei Zeugen: André Breton, Paul Éluard und dem Maler, Max Ernst, 1926)________________________________________________________
Bonus nerd points for the first person to translate the 2nd Latin phrase in the quote!
hypallage [hɪˈpælədʒi] n.
1.) The reversal of the usual syntactic or semantic relationship of words; especially, the transference of an adjective from the person who has the quality denoted to some object (person or thing) with reference to which the person manifests that quality, e.g. "flattering offer" (Garner's Modern American Usage 3rd Edition).
Etymology: Latin hypallagē, adopted from Greek ὑπαλλαγή, interchange, exchange, from ὑπό, in a subordinate degree, slightly + ἀλλάσσειν, to exchange. Cf. French hypallage.
"Adieu, adieu! my native shore
Fades o'er the waters blue;
The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar,
And shrieks the wild sea-mew.
Yon sun that sets upon the sea
We follow in his flight;
Farewell awhile to him and thee,
My Native Land—Good Night!"
(Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, George Gordon Byron, 1818)
...and now, fair Italy!
Thou are the garden of the world...
Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
With an immaculate charm which cannot be defaced.
(Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - Italy, Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1823)_______________________________________________________
Apparently those lines (also from the eponymous Byron poem) are supposed to be displayed with this painting.
