Trumpery

Cleaning up junkmail on an old account, I accidentally opened an AWAD email from Oct 19, 2016. Of the 1500 or so emails, this is the one had to open. The universe works in strange ways. Synchronicity at its best.

trumpery

PRONUNCIATION:
(TRUHM-puh-ree)

MEANING:
noun:
1. Something showy but worthless.
2. Nonsense or rubbish.
3. Deceit; fraud; trickery.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French tromper (to deceive). Earliest documented use: 1481.

USAGE:
“The room was crowded with a chilly miscellany of knick-knacks and ornaments, gewgaws, and trumpery of every kind.”
Leo Bruce; Case for Three Detectives; Academy Chicago; 1980.

“History, made up as it is of so much trumpery, treachery, and tyranny, needs deeds of valor, of sacrifice, and of heroism if it is to be palatable.”
The Medal of Honor: A History of Service Above and Beyond; Zenith Press; 2014.

See more usage examples of trumpery in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.