English

Noun

pompatus

1. (nonce word) One who is pompous or splendid.
   • 2000, Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost, Picador, ISBN 0330480774, page 140

     She loved the way the lecturer stated it, offhand, but with the air of a pompatus.

   • 2011, Craig Robinson, Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure, ISBN 1608193489:

     It's a good job there was no need for a baseball infographic about “The joker” because I'd have been forced to use a terrible pun: the pompatus of glove.

   • 2014 November 6, Barryfromtexas, “Week 9 Thingy - Not Enough Heh to Go Around (Now with grammarfication)”, in SBNation:

     Ryan Mallett is the pompatus of offense.

   • 2015, Suanne Laqueur, Give Me Your Answer True, ISBN 1508985219:

     “And my mom is the pompatus of love,” Will said.

2. (nonce word) Pomp, ostentatiousness, or spectacle.
   • 2004, Michael Chabon & ‎Michael Mignola, McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, ISBN 1400078741, page 84:

     It could be a whang-dang-doodle, a cloche hat made out of coyote fur, or a phylactery testifying to the pompatus of love.

   • 2010, Loren Berengere, Satirical Denouncements of the Wicked Americans and We Anti-Matriarchalists, page 98:

     Got my pompatus up; my rave'll be on in a few. I must have popped too many; the Iowa donkeys are starting to bray in my ears.

   • 2015, John Hornor Jacobs, Foreign Devils, ISBN 057512394X:

     All the pompatus of war. It would come.

   • 2015 June 26, Eric Zorn, “What same-sex marriage backers 'lost'”, in Chicago Tribune:

     If you're into the pompatus of Twitter, send email to ericzorn@gmail.com and I'll sign you up for the newsletter that alerts you when the week's poll is posted.

See also

• Pompatus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Etymology

Perfect passive participle of pompō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pomˈpaː.tus/, [pɔmˈpaː.tʊs]

Participle

pompātus m ‎(feminine pompāta, neuter pompātum); first/second declension

1. acted or done pompously (with pomp)

Inflection

First/second declension.

Adjective

pompātus m ‎(feminine pompāta, neuter pompātum); first/second declension

1. splendid (with pomp)

Inflection

First/second declension.

References

• pompatus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “pompatus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.