grandiloquence

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."