pompatus

First used in the lyrics of Steve Miller's 1972 rock song "Enter Maurice" ("whisper sweet words of epismetology in your ear and speak to you of the pompatus of love.") and popularized in his 1973 rock song "The Joker" ("Cause I speak of the pompatus of love"), but having no apparent meaning in either song. Inspired by the lyric "Oh my darling, let me whisper sweet words of pizmotality and discuss the puppetutes of love" in The Medallions "The Letter" written by Vernon Green. ("Puppetutes" described a fantasy paper-doll or puppet-like girl.)

pompatus

1. (nonce word) One who is pompous or splendid.
   • 2000, Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost, Picador,, →ISBN, page 140:

     She loved the way the lecturer stated it, offhand, but with the air of a pompatus.

   • 2011, Craig Robinson, Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure, →ISBN:

     It's a good job there was no need for a baseball infographic about “The joker” because I'd have been forced to use a terrible pun: the pompatus of glove.

   • 2014 November 6, Barryfromtexas, “Week 9 Thingy - Not Enough Heh to Go Around (Now with grammarfication)”, in SBNation:

     Ryan Mallett is the pompatus of offense.

   • 2015, Suanne Laqueur, Give Me Your Answer True, →ISBN:

     “And my mom is the pompatus of love,” Will said.

2. (nonce word) Pomp, ostentatiousness, or spectacle.
   • 2004, Michael Chabon, Michael Mignola, McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, →ISBN, page 84:

     It could be a whang-dang-doodle, a cloche hat made out of coyote fur, or a phylactery testifying to the pompatus of love.

   • 2010, Loren Berengere, Satirical Denouncements of the Wicked Americans and We Anti-Matriarchalists‎, page 98:

     Got my pompatus up; my rave'll be on in a few. I must have popped too many; the Iowa donkeys are starting to bray in my ears.

   • 2015, John Hornor Jacobs, Foreign Devils, →ISBN:

     All the pompatus of war. It would come.

   • 2015 June 26, Eric Zorn, “What same-sex marriage backers 'lost'”, in Chicago Tribune:

     If you're into the pompatus of Twitter, send email to […] and I'll sign you up for the newsletter that alerts you when the week's poll is posted.

• Pompatus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Perfect passive participle of pompō.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pomˈpaː.tus/, [pɔmˈpäːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pomˈpa.tus/, [pomˈpäːt̪us]

pompātus (feminine pompāta, neuter pompātum); first/second-declension participle

1. acted or done pompously (with pomp)

First/second-declension adjective.

pompātus (feminine pompāta, neuter pompātum); first/second-declension adjective

1. splendid (with pomp)

First/second-declension adjective.

• “pompatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pompatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.