Trending: ‘boffo’

Lookups spiked 90,000% on October 19, 2020

Why are people looking up boffo?

Boffo finally had its day in the sun, on October 19th, 2020, after President Trump used the adjective to describe the recent state of his rallies.

@maggieNYT There has never been a time in either of my two Campaigns when I felt we had a stronger chance of winning than we do right now. Early voting reports look far stronger than originally anticipated. Every RALLY is BOFFO. @MarkMeadows & team are doing a fantastic job....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020

What does boffo mean?

We define boffo as “extremely successful; sensational.” The word came into use in the 1930s in show business, initially as a noun (with the meaning of “a gag; a bit”). Shortly thereafter it began to be used as an adjective, with the meaning of “sensational.”

The second boffo, on the heels of this strong variety array of talent, is the ‘F.D.R. Jones’ number, with its original 24 peoples, sans Rex Ingram….
— Variety, 25 Jan. 1939

”Strong $12,000. In Louisville. Biz is Plenty Boffo!”
— Motion Picture Daily, 12 Mar. 1942

Trend Watch is a data-driven report on words people are looking up at much higher search rates than normal. While most trends can be traced back to the news or popular culture, our focus is on the lookup data rather than the events themselves.