ostentation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ostentacioun,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Middle French ostentation, recorded as ostentacion in 1346,^[6][7][5] and directly borrowed from Latin ostentātiō (“showing off, display, vain display”).^[6][3][8][2] The Latin noun comes from ostentō (“to display, exhibit”),^[6][3][9] a frequentative of ostendō (“to show, stretch out to view”),^[3][9][10] from os-, a variant of ob- (“toward, before”), and tendō (“to stretch”),^[8][5][11] from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A foretoken or portent: 1436, in the Libel Englyshe Policy, "By grete tokenes and ostentacione".^[8][2][6] Display meant to win admiration follows before 1475, in the Revelations of St Birgitta.^[6][2][8]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense, foretelling, is rare and died out by 1607.^[6] The showy sense, the one that survives, appears before 1475,^[6][8] and beside it the more neutral "showing, exhibition" ran from before 1513 until 1865.^[6] Shakespeare used it for a spectacle in Love's Labour's Lost,^[6] and for an outward show in Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra;^[12][13] Topsell's 1607 use introduces "mere or false show, pretence".^[6] Johnson (1755) listed "outward show" first but said of "ambitious display; boast; vain show" that it was the usual sense.^[12] When English needed an adjective, it tried ostentive (1599), ostentative (1600), ostentous (1624) and ostentatory (1657), before ostentatious (1658) displaced them.^[8]

Timeline

• 1436 – a portent, the presaging of future events (rare, obsolete by 1607).^[8][6]
• before 1475 – display intended to attract notice or admiration.^[6][2][8]
• before 1513 – the showing or exhibiting of something (obsolete by 1865).^[6]
• 1598 – a spectacular display, in Shakespeare (rare, obsolete by 1822).^[6]
• 1607 – mere or false show, pretence (obsolete by 1892).^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Pretentious or showy display, especially of wealth, meant to attract notice, admiration or envy: They furnished the house without ostentation.^[14][7][6]
2. Overly elaborate embellishment in art; floridity.^[7]
3. (obsolete, before 1513–1865) A showing or exhibiting of something; a display.^[6][13][12]
4. (obsolete, 1607–1892) Mere or false show; pretence.^[6][13]
5. (obsolete, before 1450–1607) A portent or presaging.^[6][13][2]

Related words

• ostentatious
• ostensive
• ostensible
• tend

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins