Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 15, 2012
altiloquent \awl-TIL-uh-kwuhnt\,
noun:
High-flown or pretentious language.
He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.
-- Holman Day, "All-Wool Morrison"
The meaning of the music was made further explicit by explanations in his own, altiloquent (but purposefully avoiding the technical) Wagnerian prose, wrapped solicitously around the Goethe passages.
-- Alessandra Comini, "The Changing Image of Beethoven"
Altiloquent stems from the Latin roots atli meaning "high" and loquentem meaning "speaking."
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