vocabulary - A (highfalutin) word for a highfalutin word?




To illustrate the question, badroit used the word "meretricious" meretriciously.



Is there an English word that describes highfalutin words like "meretricious" that are (gratuitously) used in place of better-understood words like "garish"?


The word may or may not be self-describing.



Answer



Sesquipedalian literally means 'a foot and a half long', and was originally applied to unnecessarily long words (in Latin); it has expanded in English to include people who use such words.


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