Pronounced: KY-ruhl, adj
Notes: I haven’t run across this word
Yesterday’s word
The word vapor means
- to rise of pass off in vapor; to emit vapor
- to indulge in bragging, blustering, or idle talk
First usage
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
Background / Comments
Most of us would have known the first definition, from the noun “vapor” — but the second one was completely unknown to me. The second definition came about because that kind of talk in as insubstantial as floating gas; an early word was “blow” (in the sense of bragging); later words are “windbag” and “gasbag”. Our word came from the Middle English word vapour, which came from Latin word vapor (steam). It is thought to be related to the Latin word vapidus (vapid) and vappa (wine that has gone flat).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 