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bovarism

American

[boh-vuh-riz-uhm] / ˈboʊ vəˌrɪz əm /

noun

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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of bovarism

First recorded in 1900–05; from French bovaryisme, after Emma Bovary, a character in Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary (1857); see -ism

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.