# Pompatus

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus/586009>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [June 19, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus/586009 "2011-06-19T03:58:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus/586009/1 "2011-06-19T03:58:22Z")

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The OED finds _pompaticus_ as “showy, splendid” in Tertullian from as an adjective dating from Late Latin deriving from _pompare_, “to do a thing with pomp.” _Pompatus_ per se is some weird-ass declension that I can’t hope to figure out from the abbreviations.

If you’d like to insert in an offhand bon mot the archaic English word “pompatic,” go for it. OED dates it from 1535, and the latest at 1903, probably used by some pedant (not that Cecil is; he’s just scary smart).  
Leo

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus/586009/2 "2011-06-19T04:01:53Z")

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Link to column:

[In Steve Miller’s “The Joker,” what is “the pompatus of love”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/972/in-steve-millers-the-joker-what-is-the-pompatus-of-love)