different between balderdash vs habituate

English

Etymology

Unknown, possibly from the early English drink of wine mixed with beer or water or other substances that was sold cheaply.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b??ld?.dæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Noun

balderdash (uncountable)

1. Senseless talk or writing; nonsense.
   • 1765, Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality, London, for the author, Volume I, “TO THE RIGHT RESPECTABLE MY Ancient and well-beloved PATRON THE PUBLIC,” p. xix,^[1]

     Where, you cried in the name of Wonder, have you been able to gather together such an old fashioned Bundlement of Scientific Balderdash?

   • 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.” in Southern Literary Messenger, Volume 10, December 1844, p. 720,^[2]

     [He] has the audacity to demand of us, for this twattle, a ‘speedy insertion and prompt pay.’ We neither insert nor purchase any stuff of the sort. There can be no doubt, however, that he would meet with a ready sale for all the balderdash he can scribble, at the office of either the ‘Rowdy-Dow,’ the ‘Lollipop,’ or the ‘Goosetherumfoodle.’

   • 1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Chapter 7,^[3]

     Charles Gould assumed that if the appearance of listening to deplorable balderdash must form part of the price he had to pay for being left unmolested, the obligation of uttering balderdash personally was by no means included in the bargain.

   • 1992 April 26, "Hot Off the Press" Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5:

     A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?
     B.W. Wooster: My dear old Gussie, that is how people think Irish people talk.

2. (archaic) A worthless mixture, especially of liquors.
   • 1637, John Taylor, Drinke and Welcome, London: Anne Griffin, “Beere,”^[4]

     Indeede Beere, by a Mixture of Wine, it enjoyes approbation amongst some few (that hardly understand wherefore) but then it is no longer Beere, but hath lost both Name and Nature, and is called Balderdash (an Utopian denomination) [...]

   • 1783, John O’Keeffe, The Agreeable Surprise, Newry: R. Stevenson, Act I, Scene 1, pp. 6-7,^[5]

     [...] I took him to oblige a foolish old friend of mine, who intended him for Saint Omers; so I must keep him to draw good wine, and brew balderdash Latin.

3. (obsolete) Obscene language or writing.
   • 1776, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, London: G. Robinson & J. Bew, Volume 4, Chapter 72, p. 46,^[6]

     Trugge, therefore, (who has a foul mouth of his own, when he pleases) talked balderdash to Mrs. Sudberry, through the key-hole, which she did not answer, for, indeed, she seems a civil spoken woman, truly [...]

   • 1795, Richard Cumberland, Henry, London: Charles Dilly, Volume I, Book 1, Chapter 6, p. 42,^[7]

     With me your work will be easy and your life happy, with him you will be a drudge and the lacquey of a drudge [...]: from me you will hear none but pious and edifying conversation; from them nothing but balderdash and blasphemy in an outlandish dialect [...]

Synonyms

• bunk, drivel, folderol, piffle, poppycock, rubbish, twaddle
• see Thesaurus:nonsense

Translations

Verb

balderdash (third-person singular simple present balderdashes, present participle balderdashing, simple past and past participle balderdashed)

1. (archaic) To mix or adulterate.
   • 1766, Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy, London: R. Baldwin, 2nd edition, Volume I, Letter 19, p. 309,^[8]

     That which is made by the peasants, both red and white, is generally genuine: but the wine-merchants of Nice brew and balderdash, and even mix it with pigeons dung and quick-lime.

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English habituate (“physically established or present”, adjective), from Latin habitu?tus, past participle of habitu?re (“to bring into a condition or habit of body”).

Verb

habituate (third-person singular simple present habituates, present participle habituating, simple past and past participle habituated)

1. To make accustomed; to accustom; to familiarize.
   • 1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises, Paris, “The First Treatise declaring the nature and operations of bodies,” Chapter 36, p. 311,^[1]

     […] it was the custome of our English doggs (who were habituated vnto a colder clyme) to runne into the sea in the heate of summer […]

   • 1694, John Tillotson, Sermon 2, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, London: B. Aylmer, 1696, p. 35,^[2]

     Men are usually first corrupted by bad counsel and company […] ; next they habituate themselves to their vicious practices […]

   • 1799, Hannah More, Strictures of the Modern System of Female Education, London: T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, Volume 1, “On the Prevailing System of Education, Manners, and Habits of Women of Rank and Fortune,” p. 185,^[3]

     It seems so very important to ground young persons in the belief that they will not inevitably meet in this world with reward and success according to their merit, but to habituate them to expect even the most virtuous attempts to be often, though not always disappointed, that I am in danger of tautology on this point.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 7,^[4]

     My first quarter at Lowood seemed an age; and not the golden age either; it comprised an irksome struggle with difficulties in habituating myself to new rules and unwonted tasks.

   • 1998, Nadine Gordimer, The House Gun, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p. 50,^[5]

     […] quarrels in discotheques were settled by the final curse-word of guns. State violence under the old, past regime had habituated its victims to it. People had forgotten there was any other way.

2. (obsolete) To settle as an inhabitant.
   • 1690, William Temple, “Of Poetry” in Miscellanea. The Second Part in Four Essays, London: Ri. and Ra. Simpson, p. 312,^[6]

     After the Conquests made by Caesar upon Gaul, and the nearer Parts of Germany […] great Numbers of Germans and Gauls resorted to the Roman Armies and to the City it self, and habituated themselves there, as many Spaniards, Syrians, Graecians had done before upon the Conquest of those Countries.

Synonyms

• accustom
• inure

Related terms

• habit
• habitual
• habituation

Translations