I recently ran into a word that I don't use often, don't see used often, but find truly funny due to it's history. That word was "Bombast" or "Bombastic."
History:
You may have heard the name "Paracelsus" with means "better than Celsus." Celsus was a well-known 1st Century Roman author of medical books - so right out of the gate, the guy using the name is claiming to be better than a revered expert.
Here's what Paracelsus looked like:
Paracelsus was a pretty famous doctor in the mid 1500s. Also, he was constantly being run out of town by the local doctors because he would loudly, insultingly, and publicly criticise them.
Paracelsus' theory of medicine could be summed up like this:
Most people who get sick get better all by themselves. Those who don't get better die no matter what medicine you give them (in 1550, medicine was pretty bad). Physicians (at the time) were more likely to make things worse that to make things better. So the best thing is to give a patient a herbal medicine to treat the symptoms, and if you didn't have one, use a placebo.
Using this formula, his success rate was better than the other doctors, which made him famous with people, but hated by his competitors.
Paracelsus' actual name was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim.
He was so hated that one of his names "Bombastus" became an insult meaning "an extremely loud mouthed and insulting know-it-all."
This is where the word "Bombast" comes from.
History:
You may have heard the name "Paracelsus" with means "better than Celsus." Celsus was a well-known 1st Century Roman author of medical books - so right out of the gate, the guy using the name is claiming to be better than a revered expert.
Here's what Paracelsus looked like:
Paracelsus was a pretty famous doctor in the mid 1500s. Also, he was constantly being run out of town by the local doctors because he would loudly, insultingly, and publicly criticise them.
Paracelsus' theory of medicine could be summed up like this:
Most people who get sick get better all by themselves. Those who don't get better die no matter what medicine you give them (in 1550, medicine was pretty bad). Physicians (at the time) were more likely to make things worse that to make things better. So the best thing is to give a patient a herbal medicine to treat the symptoms, and if you didn't have one, use a placebo.
Using this formula, his success rate was better than the other doctors, which made him famous with people, but hated by his competitors.
Paracelsus' actual name was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim.
He was so hated that one of his names "Bombastus" became an insult meaning "an extremely loud mouthed and insulting know-it-all."
This is where the word "Bombast" comes from.
