In looking for etymology of "inkhorn" I came across a dandy synonym for it: it had been mentioned three times, but never defined.
Euphuism is an exaggeratedly fancy English style. It was
invented by John Lyly for his novel Euphues (1578), and
involves the use of abstruse classical allusion and figures
of speech of every kind, particularly similes, extravagant
metaphors, alliteration and assonance. Lyly's books were
enormously popular and his style was widely imitated.
Indeed, even Shakespeare (who sends it up in the
utterances of Fluellen and Pistol in Henry V and the
Sir-Topas swanking of Feste in Twelfth Night) was not
immune to it. In later English literature, the most
successful uses of it are Sir Thomas Urquhart's
magnificently engorged, 17th-century translation of
Rabelais, and the 19th-century, poetical extravagance of
Swinburne and his imitators (such as James Elroy Flecker).
It also underlies the dandified utterance of Restoration
comedy, and is most satisfyingly mocked by Sheridan (for
example in Mrs Malaprop's assaults on the language in The
Rivals) and by Joyce (in the parodies of romantic literature
in Ulysses).
