I have a free App on my phone called the Miriam-Webster Dictionary App. It seemed like a no-brainer to have a dictionary on my phone. Like a calculator, it seems like something that should be part of the basic software.
My favorite part of this app though, is the 'word of the day' choice. This one can be a lot of fun. It includes a random word, it's definition, examples and a little bit about the etymology. I wasn't previously all that interested in etymology, but this App has changed that. English is just the marriage of Latin, Greek and Auld English, it seems.
Anyway, I've begun collecting my favorite Words of the Days, and I'm going to be reposting them here. I hope that Miriam Webster considers this free advertising for their app, and not theft.
Without further ado, here's the word of the day 5/12/2013:
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sesquipedalian - \sess-kwuh-puh-DAIL-yun\ -
adjective 1: having many syllables : long 2 : using long words
Examples:
Jacob's editor advised him to do away with much of the
sesquipedalian prose he favored and opt for simpler word that would reach readers of all ages and backgrounds.
"You just don't see that many
sesquipedalian writers like William F. Buckley Jr. in the media anymore,' said a colleague to whom I mentioned this topic." -- From an article by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune, December 5, 2012.
Did you know?
Horace, the Roman poet known for his satire, was merely being gently ironic when he cautioned young poets against using "sesquipedalia verba"--"words a foot and a half long"--in his book Ars poetica, a collection of Maxims about writing. But in the 17th century, English literary critics decided the word "sesquipedalian" could be very useful for lambasting writers using unnecessarily long words. Robert Southey used it to make two jibes at once when he wrote "The verses of [16th century English poet] Stephen Hawes are as full of barbarous sesquipedalian Latinisms, as the prose of [the 18th-century periodical] the Rambler."
The Latin prefix "sesqui-" is used in modern English to mean "one and a half times," as in "sesquicentennial" (a 150th anniversary).
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The text of above is quoted verbatim from the Miriam-Webster Dictionary App. What I like the most about this word is its irony. The word sesquipedalian is itself sesquipedalian - unnecessarily long and fully of syllables. This cracks me up. It also makes me laugh that the words more literal translation is 'a foot and a half long' - that this word, which has all the makings of a pretentious nerd-word, has exaggeration in its definition. Cracks me up.
7/10/2013 Update: It turns out a word that describes itself is called an 'autological' word. Sesquipedalian is a fine example of one. And, would you know it, I found out about autological words from an episode of Dinosaur Comics.
