splendiferous

English edit

Etymology edit

From Medieval Latin splendiferus, from Late Latin splendōrifer, from Latin splendor + -fer (“bearing”), reintroduced humorously into English c. 1837.

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /splɛnˈdɪfəɹəs/
Audio (Southern England) (file)

Adjective edit

splendiferous (comparative more splendiferous, superlative most splendiferous)

Beautiful, splendid.
- 1837, Robert Montgomery Bird with William Harrison Ainsworth, Nick of the Woods: A Story of Kentucky, pages 118–119:
  Oh ! you splendiferous creatur’! you anngeliferous anngel! here am I, Ralph Stackpole the Screamer […]
- 1872, Susan Coolidge [pseudonym; Sarah Chauncey Woolsey], What Katy Did‎^[1]:
  And I'd like to have a large house and a splendiferous garden, and then you could all come and live with me, and we would play in the garden, and Dorry should have turkey five times a day if he liked.
- 1900, J. M. Barrie, Tommy and Grizel‎^[2]:
  " […] I want to write something most splendiferous to-day, and I am sure to find it in your face. I have ceased to be an original writer; all the purple patches are cribbed from you."
- 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Chapter 14 "Oxen of the Sun"]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
  You move a motion? Steve boy, you’re going it some. More bluggy drunkables? Will immensely splendiferous stander permit one stooder of most extreme poverty and one largesize grandacious thirst to terminate one expensive inaugurated libation?
- 1959, e. e. cummings, “nobody loses all the time”, in 100 selected poems, page 21:
  but somebody who'd given my Uncle Sol a Victor
  Victrola and records while he lived presented to
  him upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a
  scrumptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with
  tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and
- 1964, Nikos Kazantzakis, Michael Cacoyannis, Zorba the Greek, spoken by Alexis Zorba (Anthony Quinn):
  Hey boss, did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?
- 2004, Neal Stephenson, The Confusion, page 178:
  […] he was trying to convince the Spaniards on the Viceroy's brig that they really ought to be interested in certain splendiferous goods that he, Mr. Foot, the owner and captain of this galleot, had of late brought out of the Orient—particularly, carpets.
- 2017 June 28, David Sims, “Netflix’s Okja Is a Must-See Fable About a Super-Pig”, in The Atlantic‎^[3]:
  Okja begins with a splendiferous introduction to its title character. Who is Okja?

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

splendid — see splendid

References edit

John Russell Bartlett (1887) “Splendiferous”, in Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States, Fourth edition, Little, Brown, and Company, page 637