hyperbole

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 25, 2009 is: hyperbole • \hye-PER-buh-lee\ • noun : extravagant exaggeration Examples: The food in the restaurant was quite good, but it couldn't live up to the hyperbole that had been used to describe it in the advertisement. Did you know? In the 5th century B.C. there was a rabble-rousing Athenian, a politician named Hyperbolus, who often made exaggerated promises and claims that whipped people into a frenzy. But even though it sounds appropriate, Hyperbolus' name did not play a role in the development of the modern English word "hyperbole." That noun does come to us from Greek (by way of Latin), but from the Greek verb "hyperballein," meaning "to exceed," not from the name of the Athenian demagogue. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.