In looking up the etymology behind Pinus ponderosa--having mistakenly reached a pretty silly theory I'll mention in a minute--I was very surprised to read something I'll paste from Bartleby here:

ponderous

SYLLABICATION: pon·der·ous
PRONUNCIATION: pndr-s
ADJECTIVE: 1. Having great weight. 2. Unwieldy from weight or bulk. 3. Lacking grace or fluency; labored and dull: a ponderous speech. See synonyms at heavy.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French pondereux, from Latin pondersus, from pondus, ponder-, weight. See (s)pen- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: ponder·ous·ly —ADVERB
ponder·ous·ness, ponder·osi·ty (-s-t) —NOUN


...The "lacking fluency" definition (the 3rd) caught me by surprise and I wonder whether anyone else here would have been similarly caught by surprise. If I had read, "So-and-so's ponderous speech caught Wordwind by surprise," I would have thought that that speech had been weighty, well and deeply thought out. Now I've learned that ponderous speech, in fact, lacks fluency and grace and is dull!

My theory about the ponderosa pine that proved to be completely inaccurate, by the way: I looked at the pine cones carefully and could see a rose shape at the base of the pine cone, so I wondered whether ponderosa could mean "hanging rose." Wrong. Learned, instead, that the ponderosa pine is simply a heavy pine, some of which have lived to be 600 years old. Amazing.

Best regards,
WildWood

Then there is the restaurant on the back road between Elmira, NY and Williamsport, PA called La Ponda Rosa. To the bext of my knowledge ponda is not an extant Spanish word, but I have taken the liberty of referring to the restaurant as The Pink Pound.

Dear WW: I suspect your seeing roses in "ponderosa" is fallacious. Botanical names are chosen by scientists who seldom record reasons for their choices. In this case it seems likely that the nominating botanist was impressed by the superior size of the specimens he studied. Just as "Bonanza"s Hoss was nicknamed for his size, and the ranch was the Ponderosa for same reason.

WW:

I think of a hippo as being ponderous. In comparison to say an eland it moves without grace and it's motion certainly isn't as flowing (whence fluency) as that of a ballerina. NOT that I am knocking hippos, yunnerstan.

If this starts whoever it was in on puns about hippos again.....

Or was that rhinos? No, hippos.

TEd

I've never seen it myself but I am told that hippos are quite graceful under water.

I wasn't aware of the definition; however, I'm sure I've seen 'ponderous' used to describe inelegant, cumbersome prose.


k

I agree with Ted, DubDub. Being fluent carries the connotation of "with ease", or "easily". Something ponderous doesn't move, or flow, easily. That help, Sweetie?

I'm not confused--I was just surprised in reading definition #3.

And I've figured out why I would have assumed incorrectly that a "ponderous speech" would have been a "well-thought-out" one:

I would have considered the word "ponder"--to think deeply. And then I would have leapt to the conclusion that a ponderous speech would have been one that had been deeply thought out. I would never have considered--prior to reading definition #3--that the speech was walking along on too-heavy, dull legs.

The only reason I raised the topic here was to see whether there were any of us out there who would have made the same error as I had made. I think it's interesting to come across assumptions we make about words and suddenly one day to realize that our assumption had been incorrect. Wrong root; wrong word; wrong usage.

Best regards,
WrongWord