I recently read an interesting article about words made popular by well-known figures. While the author admits these words may have had earlier etymological origins, they wouldn't have been as influential had these people not brought them into use.

Bored - Byron
Gloom - Milton
International - Utilitarian Jeremy Bentham
Gruesome - Scott
Agnostic - Huxley
Picnic - Lord Chesterfield

What other words have been put into common use because of an influential figure?

My favorite is "bloviating" which was popularized by U.S. President Warren G. Harding, the American leader most often cited at the top of any list of "America's Worst Presidents." "Bloviating" refered to long-winded and pompous speech that contained little or no meaning and was a skill that Harding openly prided himself on.

I'm not positive but I believe that the phrase "smoke-filled rooms" gained popularity through him as well. Back before the primary system, candidates for the presidency were chosen by delegates at each party's national convention. That particular year, vote after vote yielded no clear front-runner and finally Harding was generally agreed upon as being, if not brilliant, reasonably acceptable or innoffensive to most. These men came to this conclusion in private, in smoke-filled rooms, away from the main convention hall.


Harding's presidency was undoubtedly a failure but he himself seemed to have been a likable person. He often said that his favorite function as president was to walk across the White House front lawn so that he could shake hands with passers-by through the fence. It wasn't difficult, he said, and they seemed to like it.

Boy, are those days gone for good!

CJ, I spent a lot of time Googling to see if Harding was the originator of "smoke-filled rooms," but I couldn't find it. Does anyone else know?

I'm positive that it was not Harding himself who popularized the term "smoke-filled rooms (as he definitely did do with "bloviating") but rather that the term was widely used about him and, specifically, the way in which he was nominated for the presidency.


And while we're on the subject, here's an interesting bit of trivia: Warren Harding is the only U.S. President whose death was ever suspected of being the work of his wife. Yep, the First Lady was, at the time, a suspect in some quarters during the time immediately following Harding's dead when murder was considered a possibility. The theory was that she saw that his presidency was unraveling and killed him basically to protect him from himself. She was cleared, more or less, in the court of public opinion but questions persist till today regarding Harding's last days.

Have you read the novel Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold ?
Harding's death is one of the aspects of the plot although possibly a minor one.

It's really rather agood novel. I recommend it.

Presidential phrases
Washinigton -- Avoid foreign entanglements
...
TR - .. carry a big stick.
FDR - Nothing to fear but fear itself.
Nixon - I am not a crook.
Reagan - .... i don't remember ..
Dick Cheney

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

Chris, you're right that "smoke-filled rooms" was created about Harding, but not by Harding. From the net:

At 5 a.m. on June 12, [1920] an Associated Press reporter filed his story: "Harding of Ohio was chosen by a group of men in a smoke-filled room early today as Republican candidate for president."

The selection of Harding made the tag instantly famous. As with many catchphrases, its provenance is disputed.

Back on February 21 of that year, The New York Times had quoted a Harding supporter from Ohio as saying, "The convention will be deadlocked. .. [and] some 12 or 15 men, worn-out and bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, will sit down about two o'clock in the morning around a table in some smoke-filled room in some hotel and decide the nomination."

But that supporter, Harry Daugherty, later denied he had said it. Perhaps the phrase was planted in the interview by a reporter.

However, Harding himself did bring another word into use. His slogan was to promise a "Return to Normalcy". Some at the time mocked him for misspeaking, and even today some websites say he coined the term. But in fact the word already existed, and was almost as old as "normality". There's an excellent discussion in Maven's Word of the Day of five years ago.

Thomas Jefferson is the first-known person to have used these words in print, according to OED: Anglomania; Anglophobia; authentication; belittle; bid (as in 'a high bid'); catenary; countervailing; cross-street; electioneer; indecipherable; inexactitude; lengthily; Marsala; odometer; public relations; sanction ('sanctioned by judicial decisions')

Apparently if you have access to the OED on-line, you can search it for all entries whose first user is whatever person you wish. Those who have that access might come up with some interesting data for us.