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Gaudy vs Pompous - What's the difference?

gaudy | pompous | Related terms |

Gaudy is a related term of pompous.


As adjectives the difference between gaudy and pompous

is that gaudy is very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner while pompous is affectedly grand, solemn or self-important.

As a noun gaudy

is one of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited or gaudy can be a reunion held by one of the colleges of the university of oxford for alumni, normally held during the summer vacations.

gaudy

English

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain; perhaps from . A common claim that the word derives from , is not supported by evidence (the word was in use at least half a century before Gaudí was born).

Adjective

(er)
  • very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner
  • * Shakespeare
  • Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy .
  • * 1813 , , Pride and Prejudice
  • The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.
  • * 1887 , Homer Greene, Burnham Breaker
  • A large gaudy , flowing cravat, and an ill-used silk hat, set well back on the wearer's head, completed this somewhat noticeable costume.
  • * 2005 , Thomas Hauser & Marilyn Cole Lownes, "How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring", The Observer , 9 January 2005
  • Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling.
  • (obsolete) gay; merry; festive
  • (Tennyson)
  • * Shakespeare
  • Let's have one other gaudy night.
  • * Twain
  • And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...
    Synonyms
    * (excessively showy) tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy *
    Derived terms
    * gaudily * gaudy night

    Noun

    (gaudies)
  • One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
  • (Gower)

    Etymology 2

    From Latin gaudium "joy".

    Noun

    (gaudies)
  • A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally held during the summer vacations.
  • pompous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Affectedly grand, solemn or self-important.
  • * 1848, , Bantam Classics (1997), 16:
  • "Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, pompous , and tedious; and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ebullitions of private grief."

    Synonyms

    * conceited * smug * See also

    Antonyms

    * humble * modest * self-effacing