Polyhymnia · Daily Eloquencethe bully pulpit
A position commanding enough to hand you a platform — and an audience to push a cause from.
Roosevelt meant 'bully' the way we'd say 'terrific' — a first-rate place to preach from — but the word's meaning slid out from under the phrase, and modern ears now hear the schoolyard shove instead.
That drift is a gift: the phrase names a podium and, without being asked, hints at the force of standing on one.
Say it aloud and the two trochees land like a gavel — BULL-y PUL-pit.
“She's got the bully pulpit for ten minutes at every meeting, and she spends all ten on the crosswalk.”
A neighbor, half-admiring, on the school board president who won't let one issue go.
“He's turned standup into a bully pulpit for writing tests — annoying, but it's working.”
Two engineers comparing notes on their team lead.
It means a commanding platform, not the act of bullying — reach for it to describe someone browbeating a room and you've announced that you've heard the phrase but never looked at it. It also implies a real audience: a guy with three followers doesn't have a bully pulpit, he has a soapbox.
Roosevelt's 'bully' meant terrific. The word soured, the phrase sharpened — and now it sounds exactly as powerful as it is.
▸More — where it lives, variations, references
Teddy Roosevelt's coinage — in his slang 'bully' meant first-rate, and he figured the presidency was one terrific place to preach from.
Two trochees, even weight: BULL-y PUL-pit. It's a phrase that wants to be said, not muttered.
- · soapbox — self-appointed, smaller, faintly ridiculous
- · the bully pulpit of the presidency
- · a platform
- Merriam-Webster — 'bully pulpit' (definition: a prominent public position that provides an opportunity for expounding one's views)
- Merriam-Webster Word of the Day — 'bully pulpit' (TR coinage; 'bully' as period adjective for 'excellent, first-rate')
- Wikipedia — 'Bully pulpit' (coined by Theodore Roosevelt; 'bully' = superb/wonderful in his era)
- Merriam-Webster — 'bully pulpit' in a sentence (attested frames: use the bully pulpit, use X as a bully pulpit, have a bully pulpit, the bully pulpit of a pope)