Dictionary ambiguous on Donald

Readers bemused over the US presidential candidacy of the incandescent Donald Trump might consider the relevant nomenclature. The word “trump” is a variant of “triumph”. A “trump card” is one that beats all the others. “The last trump” is the final trumpet call on the Day of Judgement. We all know what a trumpet is, although The Donald has a greater physical resemblance to a tuba. A “trump” is variously defined as a decisive or advantageous move, to outdo or surpass.

That’s the good news. 

The bad news comes from the word “trumpery”, meaning foolish talk or action, or a worthless trinket. It derives from an old French word meaning “deceit”, related to another word meaning “to cheat”. If you trump up charges against someone, you’re fabricating the charges. 

Whether we regard The Donald as a triumphant trumpet (or tuba) who will beat all the other cards in play and prove to be a decisive mover – or a worthless trinket and master of deceit – we must admit that he will enliven a race among a pallid pack of candidates who are either old retreads or dull to the point of stupefaction, and sometimes both.

My wife’s astrologer claims that Trump might prove to be the divinely appointed saviour of the current age – the Zoroastrian Saoshyant, the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ in his Second Coming, the Islamic Mahdi, Maitreya Buddha and the Hindu avatar Kalki all rolled up into one charismatic loudmouth with bad hair. My wife’s astrologer is almost always wrong.

Ye Olde Pedant