Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Word of the week: sesquipedalian

For those who have a real love for sesquipedalian, or otherwise unusual words, we return this week with another offering to quench your insatiable thirst for knowledge! Huh? I can almost hear you muttering under your breath. Fear not, your muttering is justified. The word sesquipedalian is probably the cause of your understandable muttering. Our term for this week comes to us from the Latin, sesquipedalis. Breaking it down  sesqui means 1 and = times and pedalis (think of a bicycle pedal) means of the foot. So sesquipedalis / sesquipedalian literally means a foot and a half long. Interestingly enough the word itself looks to be about a foot and half long when compared to our normally used vocabulary words. How do you pronounce this handsome beast of a word? / ses  kwa  peh  dale  yun / Using it in a sentence, The young man loved to use sesquipedalian words to impress others with his extensive knowledge of the English language.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks fun vocabulary word!