Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday May 15, 2012
altiloquent \awl-TIL-uh-kwuhnt\ , adjective:
high flown or pretentious (of language).
He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.
-- Holman Day, All-Wool Morrison
The meaning of the music was made further explicit by explanations in his own, altiloquent (but purposefully avoiding the technical) Wagnerian prose, wrapped solicitously around the Goethe passages.
-- Alessandra Comini, The Changing Image of Beethoven
Altiloquent stems from the Latin roots atli meaning "high" and loquentem meaning "speaking."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for altiloquent
