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Totem wrote:
I finally managed to work "Gongoristic" into a post and not one person makes mention of it. Thundra will undoubtedly go into an orgasmic spasm when he reads it though...
I finally managed to work "Gongoristic" into a post and not one person makes mention of it. Thundra will undoubtedly go into an orgasmic spasm when he reads it though...
You have no idea, Totem.
'Gongorism' is among my favorite words.
I think my favorite word of all time is 'Cacophemism'. I love that word. I like the sound of it, the meaning, the rarity of use; everything. That word is NAILS! I'm also particularly fond of the word 'superfluous'. It's highfalutin' and graceful, but more importantly, there's a lyrical, almost musical, quality to it.
I finally stumbled unto a means of using 'belletristic', another of my favorites, in a post the other day. And I was able to do it in such a way as to avoid appearing verbose for the sake of being verbose. Let's face it, the level of literacy on this board isn't exactly conducive to showing off one's vocabulary- that's assuming, of course, that you have a genuine desire for your audience to know what you're blabbering on about and write accordingly. Anyway... I mention having used that word because it's similar to 'gongoristic' and because it allows me to segue into a discussion about a particular type of word...
It's more than a little ironic that every entry in the English dictionary that means 'unnecessarily wordy' is, invariably, 'unnecessarily wordy'.
See what I'm talking about?
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bombastic, declamatory, diffuse, discursive, flatulent, fustian, garrulous, grandiose, grandiloquent, inflated, loquacious, magniloquent, orotund, ostentatious, palaverous, pleonastic, prolix, sonorous, redundant, rhetorical, tedious, turgid, verbose, voluble
These words are completely polar in meaning; the connotative and denotative senses of the word existing in sharp contrast to one another. They are, in essence, a narcissistic condemnation of self.
They are the rhetorical equivalent of combining matter and anti-matter. Logically, one might assume that by uttering or listening to such a word, and thereby melding the opposing forces inherent, it might result in one's head exploding. Thankfully, such is not the case- there is rarely any damage done. It can, however, result in an explosion. Like this post; the one I just blew out my ***. I think Shakespeare experienced something similar, except that he crapped out things like The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet. Dumbass.