Word of the Day

: September 6, 2007

grandiloquence

noun gran-DIH-luh-kwunss

What It Means

: a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language

grandiloquence in Context

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."