Pomp & Circumstance (was: Re: A moral zero-point?)

Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Wed, 20 Jan 1999 13:31:49 +0000

At 02:43 PM 1/19/99 -0500, Mike wrote:

>> >This is where the term 'Crass commercialism' came from.).

>Likewize, his aristocratic contemporary, Pompey,
>is the source of the term pompous, presumably because of his stuffy manner.

Ahem. Referring to this new-fangled data device on my desk (the Concise Oxford Dictionary), I'm told that

crass a. Thick, gross

is from

L. crassus solid, thick

(and my Latin dictionary lists both `crassus', as above, and Crassus the entrepreneur, separately)

while

pomp n. Splendid display

is from

Gk pompe' procession, pomp (pempo' send)

Sorry to spoil a good story. :)

Damien Broderick