I had always thought that 'vaunting' was a great
word for this desirable social ability. My edition of
the Compact OED (the one with 4pp/p and a magnifying
glass) gives "boasting, bragging; boastful or
vainglorious language or utterance; arrogant assertion
or bearing" as the primary listing, but also "To
boast, extol, glorify or praise (oneself)", which is
what our heroes want to do. Watch out for entry no. 3
("A kind of fruit pie"), if there are Eurmali anywhere
near...
Alison
- ttrotsky2 <TTrotsky_at_...> wrote:
"My dictionary (the Concise OED), at least, says that
boasting is 'excessive' pride in one's
accomplishments. Different cultures will have
different values of 'excessive', of course, but while,
as you say, exaggeration is not required, it *is*
required that boasting include some degree of
arrogance, and necessarily includes negative
connotations. But, because our culture tends to value
modesty over pride, there is no one word for 'reciting
one's deeds with an appropriate and dramatic sense of
pride'. It's certainly difficult to come up with a
better word than 'boasting', for all its other connotations."
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