Boast Has No Known Ancestry
To boast is to speak with excessive pride. The word appears in English in the 1200s and no one has traced where it came from.
To boast is to talk about yourself with too much pride. Dictionaries record it from around 1300 and then stop: the origin is unknown, with suggestions ranging from Anglo-French to a Germanic word for swelling, none of them convincing. English has a surprising number of such words, and they tend to be short, blunt and old.
- To speak with pride. *He boasts about his car.*
- To possess something impressive. *The town boasts three museums.*
- A proud claim. *An idle boast.*
- Boastful — given to boasting. *A boastful letter.*
- Brag — the close synonym. *Stop bragging.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | boast | Boast about it. |
| Past | boasted | He boasted openly. |
| Noun | boast | An empty boast. |
| Adjective | boastful | Boastful talk. |
| Adverb | boastfully | Spoke boastfully. |
- He boasted of never having read a novel.Pride.
- The building boasts a rooftop garden.Neutral: possesses.
- It turned out to be an empty boast.The noun.
The neutral use of boast
- Of a person — always critical: he boasts
- Of a place or thing — neutral and common in travel writing: the hotel boasts a pool
- Why the split — an object cannot be vain, so the criticism has nowhere to land
- Some editors dislike the neutral use as advertising language
- Brag never softens this way
Recorded in English from around 1300, origin unknown. Suggested sources include Anglo-French and a Germanic root meaning to swell, but none is established.
Is the town boasts three museums correct?
Yes. Applied to places and things, boast simply means possesses something worth noting, with no criticism attached.
What is the difference between boast and brag?
Very little. Brag is more informal and slightly harsher; boast can be neutral when the subject is not a person.