different between trumpery vs rubbish

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French tromperie (“deceit”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??mp??i/
• Hyphenation: trump?ery

Noun

trumpery (plural trumperies)

1. Worthless finery; bric-a-brac or junk.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, scene 1:

     PROSPERO.^{[To Ariel]}

     This was well done, my bird.

     Thy shape invisible retain thou still:

     The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither

     For stale to catch these thieves.

2. Nonsense.
   • 1698, Robert South, “The Lineal Descent of Jesus of Nazareth from David by his Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary. Proved in a Discourse on Rev. xxii. 16.”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume III, London: Printed by Tho[mas] Warren for Thomas Bennet, OCLC 272362693; republished as Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume III, 6th edition, London: Printed by J. Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, at the Rose in Pater-noster Row, 1727, OCLC 85047152, page 287:

     Now upon the coming of Chri?t, very much, tho' not all, of this idolatrous Trumpery and Super?tition was driven out of the World: […]

3. (obsolete) Deceit; fraud.
   • 1640, Richard Greenwey, The Annales of Cornelius Tacitus. The Description of Germanie, publ. by Richard Whitaker, 182.

   • 1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White:

     In that case there is no need for me to write about the trumpery scandal by which I was the sufferer—the innocent sufferer, I positively assert.

Translations

Adjective

trumpery (not comparable)

1. Gaudy but worthless.
   • 1887, Charles Mackay, Through the Long Day: Or, Memorials of a Literary Life (page 113)

     I also remember the old Royal Mews that stood on the site of the present trumpery National Gallery, with its too suggestive pepper-boxes; […]

   • 1954, Anthony Buckeridge, According to Jennings, London: William Collins, Sons, OCLC 255905255; republished London: Stratus Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0-7551-0165-8, page 136:

     “Of all the trumpery moonshine!” Mr Wilkins exploded. “What do you think you're playing at, Jennings!”

English

Etymology

From Middle English r?b?us (“rubbish, building rubble”), further origin uncertain; possibly from Anglo-Norman rubous, rubouse, rubbouse (“refuse, waste material; building rubble”), and compare Late Latin rebbussa, robousa, robusium, robusum, rubisum, rubusa, rubusium (although the Anglo-Norman and Latin words may be derived from the English word instead of the other way around). The English word may be related to rubble, though the connection is unclear.

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???b??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???b??/, /???-/
• Hyphenation: rub?bish

Noun

rubbish (usually uncountable, plural rubbishes)

1. (chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain) Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trash
2. (by extension, chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain) An item, or items, of low quality.
3. (by extension, chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain) Nonsense.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense
4. (archaic) Debris or ruins of buildings.

Alternative forms

• rubbage (now dialectal)

Derived terms

Related terms

• rubble (possibly)

Translations

Adjective

rubbish (comparative more rubbish, superlative most rubbish)

1. (chiefly Australia, New Zealand, Britain, colloquial) Exceedingly bad; awful.

   Synonyms: abysmal, crappy, horrendous, shitty, terrible; see also Thesaurus:bad, Thesaurus:low-quality

Translations

Interjection

rubbish (chiefly Australia, Britain, New Zealand, colloquial)

1. Used to express that something is exceedingly bad, awful, or terrible.

2. Used to express that what was recently said is nonsense or untrue; balderdash!, nonsense!

   Synonyms: bollocks, bullshit

Translations

Verb

rubbish (third-person singular simple present rubbishes, present participle rubbishing, simple past and past participle rubbished)

1. (transitive, chiefly Australia, Britain, New Zealand, colloquial) To criticize, to denigrate, to denounce, to disparage. [from c. 1950s (Australia, New Zealand)]

Derived terms

• rubbisher

Translations

References

Further reading

• waste on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “rubbish”, in Online Etymology Dictionary