# word--looking for a word that means... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 19, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148 "2000-07-19T20:42:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gabbyhayes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@gabbyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabbyhayes)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/1 "2000-07-19T20:42:58Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![andyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@andyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andyman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/2 "2000-07-19T20:47:13Z")
That word would be “gooberhead” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/3 "2000-07-19T20:49:16Z")
“Erudite (sp?).” Pronounced “air-you-dyte” Also, “verbose” will do in a pinch. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/4 "2000-07-19T20:52:02Z")
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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/5 "2000-07-19T20:52:51Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![gabbyhayes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@gabbyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabbyhayes)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/6 "2000-07-19T20:53:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![gabbyhayes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@gabbyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabbyhayes)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/7 "2000-07-19T20:59:40Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/8 "2000-07-19T21:03:13Z")
Nanobyte? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/9 "2000-07-19T21:15:26Z")
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] ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/10 "2000-07-19T21:35:21Z")
Good one, Mjollnir! Best laugh I’ve had all day. ---
**Author:** ![gabbyhayes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@gabbyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabbyhayes)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2000, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/11 "2000-07-19T22:15:49Z")
can you explain the joke? ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Marini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dave\_Marini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Marini)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/12 "2000-07-21T15:31:32Z")
Me neither ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-looking-for-a-word-that-means/26148/13 "2000-07-21T17:25:59Z")
**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.