Sesquipedalian vs Pedantic - What's the difference?
sesquipedalian | pedantic |
A long word.
* 1830 , On the Art of Rising in Prose The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, part 2, v. 29, Henry Colburn and Co., page: 162:
* 1927 , John S. Farmer, William Ernest Henley, A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English: Abridged from the Seven-volume Work, Entitled "Slang and Its Analogues" , Taylor & Francis, page: 164:
* 1952 , Hannah More , Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, page: 220:
A person who uses long words.
* 2008 , Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing ,Oxford University Press, page: 106:
* 2009 , Sally Adams, Wynford Hicks, Interviewing for Journalists , Taylor & Francis, page: 97:
* 2012 , Jonathan Herring, How to Argue: Powerfully, Persuasively, Positively , FT Press, chapter 8, page: ?:
(of a word or words) long; polysyllabic.
Pertaining to or given to the use of overly long words.
* '>citation
Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.
Being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner.
Being finicky or fastidious, especially with language.
As adjectives the difference between sesquipedalian and pedantic
is that sesquipedalian is (of a word or words) long; polysyllabic while pedantic is like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.As a noun sesquipedalian
is a long word.sesquipedalian
English
Noun
(en noun)- “The fine old fellow,” as a Northern contemporary of ours patronizingly calls him, certainly rolled out his sesquipedalians with a majesty previously unknown, and gave a fine organ-like swell to his full-blow periods;
- Fleet-streetese , the so-called English written to sell by the Fleet-streeter (q.v.), or baser sort of journalist: a mixture of sesquipedalians and slang, of phrases worn threadbare and phrases sprung from the kennel;
- ‘Sometimes we converse in ballad-rhymes, sometimes in Johnsonian sesquipedalians ; at tea we condescend to riddles and charades.’
- Word-watchers, verbivores, and sesquipedalians love a challenge.
- ‘What sort of writer is the English professor looking for?’ / ‘He wants a sesquipedalian , of course.’
- Don’t be a sesquipedalian'! / Yes, you guessed right. A ' sesquipedalian is a person who enjoys long words.
Adjective
(en adjective)- More people know the sesquipedalian word "antidisestablishmentarianism" than know what it means.
- Our dinner guest was so sesquipedalian that no one could understand what he said.
Synonyms
* (of long words) polysyllabic * (given to the use of long words) bombastic, grandiloquent, long-winded, florid, prolixAntonyms
* (of long words) monosyllabic, brachysyllabic * (given to the use of long words) brief, terse, laconicDerived terms
* sesquipedalianism – literary style characterised by the use of long words. * sesquipedalianist – a writer using sesquipedalianism. * sesquipedalophobia – fear of long words.pedantic
English
Alternative forms
* pedantick (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- "On the contrary, the fall was perfectly safe; it was the impact with the ground that killed him".