I’m looking for a word that means “user of long words”–someone who never says “big” when “elephantinely leviathanic and gargantuanly enormous” can be substituted.
I think the word starts with the letter “e”.
Any ideas, folks?
That word would be “gooberhead” 
“Erudite (sp?).” Pronounced “air-you-dyte”
Also, “verbose” will do in a pinch.
I know it doesn’t start with an ‘e’, but it does mean what you said.
From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)
sesquipedalian adj 1: given to the overuse of long words; “sesquipecalian orators”; “this sesquipedalian way of saying one has no money” 2: (of words) long and ponderous; having many syllables; “sesquipedalian technical terms” [syn: {polysyllabic}] n : a very long word (a foot and a half long) [syn: {sesquipedalia}]
One of my favorite words. 
The penchant that comprises the rhetorical excess your descriptive analysis describes might well be denoted as sesquipedalianism. While polysylabification would serve in some cases, it deals mainly with the multiplicity of derivational extractions that give rise to such examples as hemisphereicalisticly.
Eschew sesquipedalian obfuscation, polysylabification evinces pedantry.
Tris.
gooberhead is closer than erudite. I need a noun.
Other adjectives you might apply to this gooberhead would be “prolix” and “verbose.” But erudition usually implies clear communication of momentous ideas whereas a gooberhead is actually attempting to conceal his small thoughts behind a fusilade of monsteroso word squibs.
Ornament.
[Antonyms: plainness.]
[Nouns] ornament; floridness c. adj. turgidity, turgescence;
altiloquence; declamation, teratiology; well-rounded periods;
elegance [more]; orotundity.
inversion, antithesis, alliteration, paronomasio; figurativeness
(metaphor) [more].
flourish; flowers of speech, flowers of rhetoric; frills of style,
euphuism, euphemism.
big-sounding words, high-sounding words; macrology, sespuipedalia
verba, Alexandrine; inflation, pretension; rant, bombast, fustian,
prose run mad; fine writing; sesquipedality; Minerva press.
phrasemonger; euphuist, euphemist.
[Verbs] ornament, overlay with ornament, overcharge; smell of the
lamp.
[Adjectives] ornament; beautified [more]; ornate, florid, rich,
flowery; euphuistic, euphemistic; sonorous; high-sounding,
big-sounding; inflated, swelling, tumid; turgid, turgescent; pedantic,
pompous, stilted; orotund; high flown, high flowing; sententious,
rhetorical, declamatory; grandiose; grandiloquent, magniloquent,
altiloquent; sesquipedal, sesquipedalian; Johnsonian, mouthy;
bombastic; fustian; frothy, flashy, flaming.
antithetical, alliterative; figurative [more]; artificial (inelegant)
[more].
[Adverbs] ore rutundo.
Nanobyte?
bom-bas-tic (bäm bastik) adj. using or characterized by high-sounding but unimportant or meaningless language; pompous; grandiloquent --bom-basti-cal-ly adv.
SYN.–bombastic refers to speech or writing that is pompous and inflated and suggests extravagant verbal padding and little substance; grandiloquent suggests an overreaching eloquence and implies the use of grandiose, high-flown language and an oratorical tone; flowery language is full of figurative and ornate expressions and high-sounding words; euphuistic is applied to an extremely artificial style of writing in which there is a straining for effect at the expense of thought; turgid implies such inflation of style as to obscure meaning
Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia
Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
[Edited by UncleBeer on 07-19-2000 at 04:18 PM]
Good one, Mjollnir! Best laugh I’ve had all day.
can you explain the joke?
Me neither
gabbyhayes and Dave Marini
NanoByte is one of the posters here. He always signs his posts Ray, then adds something clever in parens. He has a keen sense of humor. Whether he finds Mjollnir’s comment amusing remains to be seen, but I’ll wager he will have something to say in any case.
I found it amusing.