Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- High-sounding; pompous in language.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective rare High-sounding; pompous in speech.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Pompous , orpretentious inspeech
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Latin altus (adverb alte) high + loquens, p. pr. of loqui to speak.
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Examples
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He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.
All-Wool Morrison Holman Day 1900
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Of sentimentality -- altiloquent, fabricated feeling and cajolery -- there is enough in Greek and Latin literature, doubtless as a reflection of life.
Primitive Love and Love-Stories Henry Theophilus Finck 1890
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His passion is fickle, his adoration little more than adulation, and the expressions of unselfish devotion here and there do not mean more than the altiloquent words of Achilles about Briseis or of Admetus about
Primitive Love and Love-Stories Henry Theophilus Finck 1890
mtc commented on the word altiloquent
I nominate "subiloquent" as the antonym of altiloquent.
May 15, 2012