(General) Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, wrote in his autobiography of having S. Hoshour as a tutor:

""This, you see, is a story in words of five syllables. I wrote it to show the absurdity of big words so striven after by young writers, and, for the matter of that, by many old ones as well." Taking another book, he selected a passage and had me read it aloud, saying, at the conclusion, "How clear and simple that is! Now try 'Altisonant' again." I tried, but gave it up."

- Lew Wallace quoting Professor Samuel K. Hoshour (the man behind Lorenzo Altisonant), his private teacher for a period, in: Lew Wallace: An Autobiography (1906)