Saturday, March 15, 2008

Inception - all about the title

Sesquipedalian: I guess there are many words whose meanings tell a thing or two about themselves. One such is this.

Meaning: noun - a very long word, polysyllabic word
adjective - given to the overuse of long words;
long and ponderous, having many syllables

Etymology: "We owe this word to the Roman writer Horace, who wrote in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry): “Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba” (“He throws aside his paint pots and his words that are a foot and a half long”). It comes from Latin sesqui–, one and a half, plus ped, a foot."
(Deeply indebted to the site http://www.worldwidewords.org created by Michael Quinion for the information...do check it out!)

Usage:
"Daniel Patrick Moynihan is a man of many accomplishments: scholar, urbanist, Presidential adviser, diplomat and, since 1977, a distinguished Senator from New York. He now aspires to fame also as a celebrated sesquipedalian, but in that ambition he is destined for defeat...The other day he told his colleagues he wanted to make a word of his coinage the longest word[floccinaucinihilipilification is the word and he wanted to create floccinaucinihilipilificationism] in the English dictionary."
The New York Times, June 26, 1991...for the full article click here

"The conservative man of letters known for his sesquipedalian style -- that is, his love of long fancy words -- will mark his 70th birthday..."
The New York Times, Sept. 3, 1995...for the full article click here

"...
The chortling fondness for out-of-the-way polysyllables that sometimes burst out in Captain Corelli's Mandolin ("our sesquipedalian friend") is given frequent vent ("He hurled an inkpot at my head with serendipitous inaccuracy"). Outlandish and obsolete vocabulary peppers the prose: "immanitous", "abscondence", "perduring", "perseverant", "afflated", "disencrypt", "mommixity and foofaraw". At one moment, a cleaning lady offers to "perform an act of iatrosophia"..."
The Sunday Times, June 27, 2004...for the full article click here

I have assumed that anyone who must have read this far would not be suffering from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia i.e. a fear of long words...read more of that here.

Until I get down to the compiling business again, take care...Dear reader!

2 comments:

GnOsYsPeAkS said...

Hello Mr.Jeevanjyothy Chakraborthy! My name is Uday Kumar Susarapu.
First of all, I would love to appreciate you, for putting down a good amount of effort in posting, as well as regularly updating, this mini-size encyclopedia. Congratulations!
But, I have a point, which I don't think you would disagree, that language is basically a means of communication. When this communication is cut-off, due to any reason, then it is no longer of any use. Isn't it?? Therefore, I sincerely doubt the relevance, as well as the need of these words in our day-to-day life, which communicate less and confuse more. I would love to stress my earlier point that, I really appreciate your effort. But I, being a person who loves to keep the language as simple as possible, would be enjoying it to a very minimal extent.
I was honest in my opinion. And, I sincerely hope that, neither should your feelings be hurt, nor should your determination be discouraged.
Thank you.

Jeevanjyoti Chakraborty said...

Well said Uday...I couldn't agree more with you. But (oh yes, there is always a but!) the point is, I started writing this blog not as some help-yourself-to-a-better-vocabulary stuff. The logic behind this is not too distant from the logic that rich women love buying diamonds or jewellery... true it embellishes their beauty...but not in direct proportion to what they buy...then why buy (why write this blog)...the reason is to humor oneself...to indulge in an innocent fun...nothing useful ever comes of it...I am not trying to improve communication neither am I trying to confuse yes, probably I am trying to buy some bragging rights...
Why climb the Mt. Everest... George Mallory said.."because it is there"...yes, because they (those words) are there!