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Permanent link for this word: bovarism1


A.Word.A.Day--bovarism

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bovarism (BO-vuh-riz-em) noun

An exaggerated, especially glamorized, estimate of oneself; conceit.

[From French bovaryisme, after Emma Bovary, a character in Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary.]

"The public property is not so much her as Bovarism. She is part of the collective unconscious. She is, and can be, everyone." Alan Franks, France's best-kept secret, The Times of London, Aug 12, 1995.

This week's theme: fictional characters who live on in the dictionary.

X-Bonus

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (1928- )

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