grandiloquence

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 6, 2007 is: grandiloquence • \gran-DIH-luh-kwunss\ • noun : a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language Examples: I prefer a more informal style, so I was a bit put off by the grandiloquence of the author's writing. Did you know? "Grandiloquence," which first appeared in English in the late 16th century, is one of several English words pertaining to speech that derive from the Latin "loqui," meaning "to speak." Other offspring of "loqui" include "eloquent" ("marked by fluent expression"), "loquacious" ("full of excessive talk"), and "soliloquy" ("a long dramatic monologue"). "Grandiloquence" comes (probably via Middle French) from the Latin adjective "grandiloquus," which combines "loqui" and the adjective "grandis" ("grand or great"). A word that is very similar in meaning to "grandiloquence" is "magniloquence" -- and the similarity is not surprising. "Magniloquence" combines "loqui" with "magnus," another Latin word meaning "great." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.