Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Characterized by long words; polysyllabic: Describes words that are long and contain many syllables.
   • Given to using long words: Describes a person or style of speaking/writing that habitually uses long, often complex, words.

2. Noun:

   • A very long word: A word that is notably long, often humorously referred to as being "a foot and a half long."

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The professor's sesquipedalian lecture was difficult for the first-year students to follow.
  • Legal documents are often written in a deliberately sesquipedalian style.
• Noun:
  • "Antidisestablishmentarianism" is a classic example of a sesquipedalian.

Advanced Usage

• As a stylistic critique: The term is often used to describe language that is perceived as unnecessarily complex or pretentious.
  • The author's sesquipedalian prose obscured the simple message of the story.
• In humor: The word itself is often cited as an ironic, self-descriptive example of a long word.
  • He used the sesquipedalian "sesquipedalian" to complain about long words.

Variants and Related Words

• Sesquipedalianism (n): The practice of using long words; a style characterized by such usage.
  • His sesquipedalianism made his emails a chore to read.
• Sesquipedality (n): The quality of being sesquipedalian.
• Sesquipedal (adj): An older, less common synonym.

Synonyms

• Polysyllabic: Having many syllables.
• Grandiloquent: Pompous or extravagant in language, style, or manner.
• Bombastic: High-sounding but with little meaning; inflated.
• Lexiphanic (rare): Using pretentious words and language.

Antonyms

• Plain-spoken: Speaking in a simple, direct manner.
• Laconic: Using very few words.
• Breviloquent (rare): Speaking briefly and concisely.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• A foot and a half long: A humorous, metaphorical description for a very long word, directly tied to the etymology of "sesquipedalian" (from Latin , meaning "a foot and a half").
  • He delighted in collecting words that were a foot and a half long.

Adjective

1. (of words) long and ponderous; having many syllables
   • sesquipedalian technical terms
2. given to the overuse of long words
   • sesquipedalian orators
   • this sesquipedalian way of saying one has no money

Noun

1. a very long word (a foot and a half long)