A.Word.A.Day --magniloquent

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Today's Word

magniloquent

PRONUNCIATION:

(mag-NIL-uh-kwuhnt)

MEANING:

adjective: Characterized by lofty, grandiose, or pompous speech or writing.

ETYMOLOGY:

Back-formation from magniloquence, from Latin magnus (large) + loqui (to speak). Earliest documented use: 1640.

USAGE:

“Some poets are magniloquent dealers in literary rhetoric. Not Ashbery. He is unusually unemphatic. His voice often sounds small and hesitant.”
Michael Glover; Parlour Games; New Statesman (London, UK); May 23, 2005.

See more usage examples of magniloquent in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry ... To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery. -George Polya, mathematician (13 Dec 1887-1985)

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