sesquipedalian「多音節的；好用長的詞的」

Word of the Day ： March 26， 2021

sesquipedalian

多音節的；好用長詞的

adjective sess-kwuh-puh-DAIL-yun

wd20210326

wd20210326

01：57

來自E語Tong

Definition

1 ： having many syllables ： long

多音節的：長的

2 ： using long words

使用長的單詞

Examples

Jacob‘s editor advised him to pare away the sesquipedalian prose he favored and opt for simpler language that would reach more readers。

雅各布的編輯建議他去掉那些他喜歡的晦澀難懂的散文（詩歌）「 the sesquipedalian prose he favored」，選擇更簡單的語言，這樣讀者就會更多。

“For generations， college-bound kids have memorized sesquipedalian word lists and spent hours or days， if not months， mastering the theory of guessing among other test-taking tricks and gimmicks to propel them to a high score on the pivotal SAT exam。” — Jill Tucker， The San Francisco Chronicle， 15 Feb。 2016

幾代人以來，即將上大學的孩子們已經記住了大量的單詞列表，並花了幾個小時或幾天，甚至幾個月的時間，掌握猜測（推敲）理論及其他應試技巧，以便在關鍵的SAT考試中獲得高分。

Did You Know?

Horace， the ancient 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）。

Horace，以諷刺而聞名的古羅馬詩人，在他的著作《詩歌》（Ars poetica）中告誡年輕詩人不要使用sesquipedalia verba——“words a foot and a half long”——這只是一種溫和的諷刺。但在17世紀，英國文學評論家認為，sesquipedalian這個詞在批評作家使用不必要的長詞時非常有用。Robert Southey 在《16世紀英國詩人》寫到Stephen Hawes的詩句和（18世紀期刊）《漫步者》的散文一樣充滿了barbarous sesquipedalian Latinisms「粗俗冗長的拉丁語句」”時，對它進行了兩次嘲諷。拉丁語字首 sesqui-在現代英語中表示“one and a half times”，as in sesquicentennial 「150週年紀念」。

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective that describes rambling， pointless speech： ga _ _ _ l _ _ s。