Tappertitian

English

Etymology

From Simon Tappertit +‎ -ian, from a character in Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge.

Adjective

Tappertitian (comparative more Tappertitian, superlative most Tappertitian)

1. Similar to the character Simon Tappertit in Dickens' Barnaby Rudge, especially being self-important, passionately conservative and anti-Catholic, and given to big ideas poorly expressed.
   • 1903, George Bernard Shaw, “Preface”, in Man and Superman:

     I have been proof against the garish splendors and alcoholic excitements of the ordinary stage combinations of Tappertitian romance with the police intelligence.

   • 1912, Alfred Richard Orage, Arthur Moore, The New Age: A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature and Art, page 66:

     This chapter is illiterate, unconsciously Tappertitian. The language is painfully funny.

   • 1967, Ford Madox Ford, The English Review, volume 6, page 703:

     This astonishing pronunciamento upon the liberty, the art, the culture, and the common sense of England takes place with Tappertitian gravity […]