Make Your Point > Archived Issues > SESQUIPEDALIAN

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connect today's word to others: Good morning, fellow hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianists. :) Would you agree with my opinion on long words? We can love long words, treasure them, use them with humor when the timing is right--and still understand that they're ridiculous, that they're not nearly as good as the simple, clear, useful words that help us touch our listeners' hearts. Horace might have agreed. In a letter he wrote titled Ars Poetica, which gives practical advice to fellow poets about how to write well, he urged writers to embrace common words and to throw aside fancy long ones, assuming those writers "have a mind to move the heart of the spectator." (Here's the particular translation I just quoted.) Ironically though, Horace's use of the Latin phrase sesquipedalia verba, or "words a foot and a half long," really caught on, bringing the lengthy word sesquipedalian into popular use. Sesquipedalian words are very long ones. Unnecessarily long ones. Sometimes we end up using one because we shoved suffixes onto a word to force it into an existing sentence: latitudinarian, inimitability, quintessentialized. Other words are sesquipedalian even before we foist suffixes on them. Examples in this category will never get their own issue of Make Your Point because they're too ridiculous for everyday use, like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, or floccinaucinihilipilification, which is the act of thinking of something as worthless, or hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which is the fear of very long words, or hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianist, which is someone who loves very, very, very long words. make your point with... "SESQUIPEDALIAN" "Sesquipedalian" literally means "a foot and a half long." (The "sesqui" part means "half as much again," just like a sesquicentennial is a celebration of 150 years, which is half as much again as a centennial, 100 years. And the "pedal" part means "foot," just like a pedal that you put your foot on in a car, or on a bike or piano.) So, sesquipedalian things or people have or use unnecessarily long words (or unnecessarily long phrases). Pronunciation: SESS kwih pih DAIL ee un Part of speech: Adjective. (Adjectives are describing words, like "large" or "late." They can be used in two ways: 1. Right before a noun, as in "a sesquipedalian thing" or "a sesquipedalian person." 2. After a linking verb, as in "It was sesquipedalian" or "He was sesquipedalian.") Other forms: None are common enough to bother with. How to use it: "Sesquipedalian" is one of those words you use with a smile or a laugh--with the acceptance that, even as you're pointing out how silly it is that people are using long words, you're using a long word, too, to complain about long words. If you see the fun in this irony, you're my kind of nerdy. :) Talk about sesquipedalian words, names, titles, phrases, expressions, sentences, statements, jargon, Latinisms, foreign terms, etc. Although you can say that a person is sesquipedalian, it's more likely that you'll say that someone has a sesquipedalian style, a sesquipedalian manner, or sesquipedalian habits. Or, say that someone is or becomes sesquipedalian in a particular letter, email, speech, etc. examples: I can't understand a single page of Chad's sesquipedalian reference books on neuroscience; I'd have to keep looking up words like "ventriculocisternostomy." I laughed until I cried at the sesquipedalian humor in that one scene in Monty Python's Flying Circus... the one about Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein...von Hautkopft of Ulm. study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "sesquipedalian" means when you can explain it without saying "polysyllabic in the extreme" or "using very long words." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "I (actually enjoy OR could do without) (someone's) sesquipedalian musings on _____." Example: "I actually enjoy Alton Brown's sesquipedalian musings on the chemistry of food." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. This month, we're playing with some beautifully worded passages from the Bible as we recall words we've studied before. From our previous issue: "And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his ______, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven." (King James Version, Job, chapter 2, verse 12.) What's the missing word? Here, it's used literally, and it means "a garment like a cloak." But it can also mean "a leadership role" or "a role of responsibility."  Answer: mantle. Try this today: "[He] had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down m____ upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven." (King James Version, Psalms, chapter 78, verses 23-24.) What's the missing word? It means "food that magically appears," or more generally, "anything pleasant or helpful that you get in a lucky or unexpected way." review today's word: 1. A close opposite of SESQUIPEDALIAN is A. TENDENTIOUS. B. TITANIC. C. TERSE. 2. Toward the end of her email she grew sesquipedalian, as if _____. A. desperation had gripped her B. she had lost touch with reality C. she had swallowed a thesaurus Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. C