different between pageant vs pompous

English

Alternative forms

• pageaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

Late 14th c. as Middle English pagent, from Medieval Latin pagina (“play in a cycle of mystery plays”), perhaps from Latin p?gina (“page of a book”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pæd??nt/

Noun

pageant (plural pageants)

1. An elaborate public display, especially a parade in historical or traditional costume.

   Synonym: spectacle

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, volume 3, chapter 4

     For a few moments the events of the day floated in disastrous pageant through my brain, till sleep bathed it in forgetfulness […]

2. A spectacular ceremony.
3. Ellipsis of beauty pageant.

   Synonyms: beauty contest, beauty pageant

4. (obsolete) A wheeled platform for the exhibition of plays, etc.

Derived terms

• pageanter
• pageantry
• beauty pageant

Translations

Verb

pageant (third-person singular simple present pageants, present participle pageanting, simple past and past participle pageanted)

1. To exhibit in show; to represent; to mimic.

References

Anagrams

• Napgate

Middle English

Noun

pageant

1. Alternative form of pagent

English

Etymology

From Middle English pompous, from Old French pompeux, from Late Latin pomposus, from Latin pompa (“pomp”), from Ancient Greek ????? (pomp?, “a sending, a solemn procession, pomp”), from ????? (pémp?, “I send”). Doublet of pomposo.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p?mp?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p?mp?s/

Adjective

pompous (comparative more pompous, superlative most pompous)

1. Affectedly grand, solemn or self-important.
   • 1848, Thackeray, William Makepeace, Vanity Fair, 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 Samuel did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ebullitions of private grief."

Synonyms

• conceited
• smug
• See also Thesaurus:arrogant

Antonyms

• humble
• modest
• self-effacing

Related terms

• pomp
• pomposity
• pompously

Translations

Further reading

• pompous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pompous in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• pompous at OneLook Dictionary Search