magniloquent

English

Etymology

From post-Classical Latin magniloquens (“talkative, verbose”).

Adjective

magniloquent (comparative more magniloquent, superlative most magniloquent)

1. Using pompous speech; speaking with deliberately long or esoteric words.

   Synonyms: bombastic, tumid, grandiloquent, pompous

   • 1908, Charles Francis Horne, The Technique of the Novel, page 126:

     There is no doubt that the ordinary reader would enjoy, and he certainly would profit much by, a revival of the classic work—if only he did not fall asleep over its magniloquent but perissological otiosity.

   • 2012, David Skinner, The Story of Ain't: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published, HarperCollins, page 40:

     The sermonizer, said Dwight [Macdonald], was guilty of "puerile, stupid twaddle" and seemed to have "a remarkable power of hypnotizing himself with magniloquent platitudes."

Synonyms

• fustian
• lexiphanic

Derived terms

• magniloquently

 

Related terms

• grandiloquent
• magnificat
• magniloquence
• splendiloquent

 

Translations

speaking pompously; using swelling discourse; bombastic

• Bulgarian: високопарен (bg) (visokoparen)
• French: grandiloquent (fr) m
• Hungarian: dagályos (hu), fellengzős (hu)
• Irish: mórfhoclach
• Spanish: grandilocuente (es), pomposo (es)

References

• “magniloquent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.