vaniloquy

English

Alternative forms

• vaniloquie (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin vāniloquium. See -loquy.

Noun

vaniloquy (countable and uncountable, plural vaniloquies)

1. (literary, rare) Idle or vain talk. [from 1623]

   Synonym: vaniloquence

   • [1626, H[enry] C[ockeram], “much Babbling”, in The English Dictionarie: or, An Interpreter of Hard English VVords: […], 2nd edition, London: […] Isaac Iaggard, for Edmund Weauer, […], →OCLC, 2nd part […], signature [M8], verso, column 2:

     much Babbling, Dicacity, Vaniloquy.

     Vaniloquie in the 1st edition (1623).]

   • 1713, anonymous author, A Vindication of the Ministers and Ruling Elders, in the Church of Scotland, Who Have Refused the Oath of Abjuration. […], [Edinburgh], pages 13–14:

     This Oath is ſinful, becauſe it contains no fewer than Forty Battologies or Vain Repetitions, the Senſe of which might have been as well and fully expreſt by eight or nine words at moſt, as will appear to any who will recount them: […] All Vaniloquy or ldle ſpeaking in our Daily Converſation, is prohibite, much more in an Oath: If any Perſon addreſſed another thus, I acknowledge, profeſs, teſtifie, and declare, &c. would he not be thought (impartially ſpeaking) to bring out ſome Ludicrous Matter, and to be in a Sport, or meerly flaunting.

     Sometimes erroneously attributed to Alexander Lauder.

   • 1820 December 9, “[Review of New Books.] Almanacks for 1821.”, in The Literary Gazette; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Etc. for the Year 1820. […], number 203, London: […] W[illiam] Pople, […], page 786, column 1:

     The third is the glorious and immortal Vox Stellarum, &c. &c. with “an hieroglyphick adapted to the Times. By Francis Moore, Physician.” But we have at length reached inspired ground, and must end all vaniloquy.

   • 1845, Филиппъ Рейфъ [i.e., Karl Philipp Reiff], compiler, Новый карманный словарь русскаго, французскаго, нѣмецкаго и англійскаго языковъ, въ пользу россійскаго юношества, по словарямъ Академіи Россійской, Академіи Французской, Аделунга, Гейнціуса, Джонсона, Вебстера, и по другимъ Лексиконамъ, […] (overall work in Russian), Saint Petersburg, page 689:

     [Суе]сло́віе, sn. des discours frivoles m. . . . . . . . unnützes Geſchwätz. . . . . . . . vaniloquy, vain talk.

   • 1875 February 7, “The Pope. (From an Occasional Correspondent.)”, in The Times, number 28,236, London, published 1875 February 11, page 8, column 2:

     “And what,” says the Voce with ante-Ritualistic zeal, approaching even to the Evangelical,—“Are there not in the Holy Scriptures, in the works of the Sainted Fathers, in ecclesiastical history and antiquities, in our admirable Liturgy, treasures of wisdom and of piety, of grand example and of deep devotion, without having to turn to the ‘vaniloquies’ of foolish, visionary persons, influenced perhaps by speculations anything but devout.”

   • 1909, Eugenio Tanzi, translated by W[illiam] Ford Robertson and T[heodore] C[harles] Mackenzie, “[Amentia] Symptoms”, in A Text-Book of Mental Diseases, New York, N.Y.: Rebman Company […], page 345:

     Verbal associations by sound, by mnemonic automatism, by contiguity of space and of time, meeting with no inhibition, overcome every effort at logical continuity of thought, and impel the patients to mere empty talk (vaniloquy).

References

• “vaniloquy, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.