bodacious

bo·da·cious also bow·da·cious  (b-dshs) or bar·da·cious (bär-) Southern & South Midland U.S.

adj.

1. Remarkable; prodigious.

2. Audacious; gutsy.

adv.

1. Completely; extremely.

2. Audaciously; boldly.

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[Probably from dialectal boldacious, blend of bold and audacious.]

Regional Note: Popularized in the comic strip Snuffy Smith, bodacious is probably a blend of the words bold and audacious, whose combined senses are evident in the following description of Sevier County, Tennessee, as "the most bodacious display of tourism this side of Anaheim" (Los Angeles Times). A more traditional meaning is "remarkable, prodigious": "a bodacious amount of smoke" (Springfield MA Morning Union); "the most bodacious tale of hidden treasure" (Lawrence E. Will). Bodacious can also be an adverbial intensifier: "She's so bowdacious unreasonable when she's raised [irritated]" (William T. Thompson). African-American speech in New York City retains this Southernism as bardacious. Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary cites the form boldacious, which is the likely source for bodacious.

Thesaurus

Adj.	1.	bodacious - incorrigible; "a bodacious gossip" colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech unmitigated - not diminished or moderated in intensity or severity; sometimes used as an intensifier; "unmitigated suffering"; "an unmitigated horror"; "an unmitigated lie"
	2.	bodacious - unrestrained by convention or propriety; "an audacious trick to pull"; "a barefaced hypocrite"; "the most bodacious display of tourism this side of Anaheim"- Los Angeles Times; "bald-faced lies"; "brazen arrogance"; "the modern world with its quick material successes and insolent belief in the boundless possibilities of progress"- Bertrand Russell brazen, brazen-faced, insolent, audacious, bald-faced, barefaced, brassy unashamed - used of persons or their behavior; feeling no shame