fanfare

Etymology

It is borrowed from French fanfare (“a sounding of trumpets”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Rabelais in 1546,^[7] from fanfarer (“to blow a fanfare”),^[7][3] of which Collins takes the noun as a back-formation.^[8] Most dictionaries take the French word as imitative, perhaps echoic of the sound of trumpets.^{[2][4][5][6][9][10][11]} Barnhart and Etymonline give another view: that it shares an origin with Spanish fanfarrón (“braggart”) and Italian fanfano (“babbler”), perhaps an Arabic word meaning a chatterer, itself imitative.^[7][3] Skeat thought it was imitative or borrowed from Spanish,^[12] and Dictionary.com relates it to fanfaron, the source of fanfaron.^[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is figurative, before 1605, in a poem by A. Montgomerie;^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1605 and Etymonline to about 1600.^[5][3] The literal sense, a flourish or call sounded on trumpets, bugles or hunting horns, is recorded from 1769, in a translation of Rousseau,^[2][7] which matches the mid-18th-century date of the Oxford dictionaries.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a flourish of trumpets, as at a ceremony or in the lists,^[2][5] and also a lively tune played on hunting horns during the chase.^[5] The figurative sense, a showy display or a great deal of publicity, is found in phrases such as with little fanfare.^[10][8][5] In 1895 fanfare was also applied to a style of bookbinding decoration with interlaced ribbons, developed in Paris in the 16th century.^[2][10] The verb, to sound a fanfare, is recorded from 1860,^[2] and later meant to announce something with a great deal of noise.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1605 – figurative use, in A. Montgomerie.^[2]
• 1769 – a flourish sounded on trumpets, bugles or hunting horns.^[2][7]
• 1860 – verb, to sound a fanfare.^[2]
• 1895 – a style of decorated bookbinding.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short, showy flourish played on trumpets or other brass instruments, as at a ceremony or as a signal: A fanfare greeted the arrival of the king.^[8][5][2]
2. A showy display or a great deal of publicity: The new library opened with little fanfare.^[8][5][10]
3. A style of bookbinding decoration with a continuous interlaced ribbon.^[2][10]

Verb

1. To announce or make known with much noise or display.^[5]
2. To sound a fanfare.^[2]

Related words

• fanfaron
• fanfaronade

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray