The Oxford English Dictionary, as historian Simon Schama notedВ in November 2015, defines trumperyВ thusly: You can imagine these peopleвЂ™s delight to discover, for example, that the current edition of Merriam-Webster defines trumperyВ as вЂњworthless nonsense,вЂќ or a collection of вЂњtrivial but useless articles.вЂќ And thatвЂ™s just for starters:

It was around the same time thatВ Trump antagonistsВ caught on toВ another peculiarity of theВ President-to-beвЂ™s surname, which isВ that it can be passed off as the root of the English noun trumpery, which has been in use sinceВ the 1400s and isВ rife with derogatoryВ connotations. It is now common knowledge (hat tip to the Internet)В thatВ President Donald TrumpвЂ™s ancestral family name was Drumpf, aВ presumably respectable German surnameВ that sounds, unfortunately -В to English speakersвЂ™ ears, at any rate - like a sack of potatoes hittingВ the bedВ of a donkey cart.ДЄt some point (a century, or two, or perhaps three ago В the exact timing of itВ remains unclear), a forebear shortened the family name to Trump: вЂњa good move,вЂќ Donald Trump notedВ in 2004,В вЂњsince Drumpf Tower doesnвЂ™t sound nearly as catchy.вЂќДuring the early months of TrumpвЂ™s presidential campaign in 2015, naysayers deployed Drumpf to great effect as a put-down, sometimes even allegingВ (falsely)В that Drumpf, not Trump, was the candidateвЂ™sВ real name.

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