History Main / SesquipedalianLoquaciousness

* Creator/MarkTwain accused Germans (at least, German writers) to be always like that, and cites words like "Freundschaftsbezeigungen" and a sentence with over seventy words as proof. Said sentence was taken from a SillyLoveNovel. Now wonder how much more complicated philosophical and scientific works from the 19th century must be.

* The sleazy, pseudo-intellectual wannabe SouthernFriedGenius crook played by TomHanks in Creator/TheCoenBrothers version of ''TheLadykillers''.

* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Series/{{Friends}}'' when Joey uses a thesaurus on every single word of a letter he's writing in an attempt to sound intelligent.

* ''WebVideo/TheAutobiographyOfJaneEyre'': Adele is an AdorablyPrecauciousChild and a ChildProdigy, and this is her mode of speaking, if she's not speaking a foreign language. For instance, she described finger nail art as "rather cathartic".

* ''WebVideo/TheAutobiographyOfJaneEyre'': Adele is an AdorablyPrecausiousChild and ChildProdigy, and this is her mode of speaking, if she's not speaking a foreign language. For instance, she described finger nail art as rather cathartic.

* A recent Red Stripe beer commercial (titled "Big Word") shows a man giving an office presentation. He uses the word "equanimity", and the Red Stripe Band bursts in with the following:

* Look up Eubonics, I mean African American Vernacular English on wikipedia, without grinning, its tougher than it sounds.

One of the symptoms of SpockSpeak. Usually also a MotorMouth. Often takes advantage of the fact that TalkingIsAFreeAction. See also TechnoBabble, ExpospeakGag, AntiquatedLinguistics, SophisticatedAsHell, and DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment. If someone tries for this and can't get the words right, they're perpetrating DelusionsOfEloquence. If the ''author'' commits this, see PurpleProse. The word {{Antidisestablishmentarianism}} is almost guaranteed to show up as well.

* In ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland, [[AuthorAvatar the Dodo]] uses this so many times that the Eaglet demands that he "speak English" and accuses him of not understanding half of the things coming out of his beak.

* Wrestling/BobBacklund's mid-'90s comeback [[FaceHeelTurn heel run]] was characterized by his speaking with words from the unabridged dictionary; notably, calling the fans "plebians".

* Brian Pillman used to engage in a bit of this. For example, in the promo where Wrestling/ChrisBenoit was drafted into the Horsemen, Pillman ranted about how Wrestling/{{Sting}} "regaled [his] obsequious lapdogs with [his] reprehensible act."

* Nick Bockwinkel practically invented the use of Ivy League vocabulary in wrestling promos referring to opponents as "belligerent recalcitrants" and fans a "cretinous humanoids."

* Shlubb and Klump (a.k.a. Fat Man and Little Boy) from ''SinCity'' indulge in this type of dialogue in an attempt to look intelligent. However, they tend to mix a fair amount of a malapropism in with it as well. The result is called DelusionsOfEloquence.
* In TheDCU, this is a trademark of "Big Words", a member of the Newsboy Legion.
** And his Marvel counterpart, Jefferson Worthington Sandervilt of the Young Allies.

** Memorably [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in SecretWars just after the heroes were teleported into deep space by the Beyonder's machines. (Note: At the time of Secret Wars, Captain Marvel was the Monica Rambeau version, Iron Man was [[Comicbook/WarMachine James Rhodes]] instead of Tony Stark, and the Hulk had Bruce Banner's mind.)

-->'''[[IncredibleHulk Hulk]]:''' That's obvious Richards!
-->'''IronMan:''' ''Obvious?'' What'd he say?

* Both Calvin ''and'' Hobbes from Bill Watterson's ''CalvinAndHobbes'' are known for having particularly verbose discussions with each other. This is occasionally mentioned, such as in the Tenth Anniversary Collection, in contrast with his usual [[BookDumb failing grades at school]].

* One of the Kingpin's lieutenants speaks like this in ''DaredevilBornAgain''. Like the SinCity example above, this was ''[[SelfPlagiarism also written by]]'' FrankMiller. It predates it by a number of years, but still.

* ''{{Cerebus}}'' features a character known only as "The Judge", who may just be the walking incarnation of this trope. A seemingly omnipotent being, the judge never actually ''does'' anything with his limitless powers and knowledge because he is too busy making long, long, LONG expository speeches using very big words. How long? In his first appearance, he speaks uninterrupted for ''five. straight. issues.''

** In a later issue, The Judge appears out of thin air to inform Death that he is about to die. And also that he is actually not Death at all, just delusional. It takes him more words to tell him this than the entire word count of the previous two issues combined. Leading to a CrowningMomentOfFunny when "Death's" only response to this verbal tsunami is to say "Well, fuck me," and die.

* This is a prominent gimmick of [[{{Batman}} The Penguin]] in almost all of his incarnations.

* [[AuthorAvatar Makko]] from ''Fanwork/ZanyToTheMax'' has his SesquipedalianLoquaciousness moments.

* One of the trademarks of [[MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] was fast [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan]] SesquipedalianLoquaciousness.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' episode "TV or not TV" Brain has a brief career as a stand-up comedian involving him insulting the audience by phrasing his insults using SesquipedalianLoquaciousness.

* Everything [[RuleOfFunny becomes funny]] if you describe it with SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, as Dr. Henry Gibbons has shown us: "A kiss is the anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicular muscles in a state of contraction."

* In his interviews and [[FForFake documentaries]] OrsonWelles somehow manages to be a [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness Sesquipedalian Loquacian]] DeadpanSnarker.

* MarkTwain accused Germans (at least, German writers) to be always like that, and cites words like "Freundschaftsbezeigungen" and a sentence with over seventy words as proof. Said sentence was taken from a SillyLoveNovel. Now wonder how much more complicated philosophical and scientific works from the 19th century must be.

* The flavor text for the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' card Uktabi Kong, apparently meant to convey that he's smarter than the average ape: "I desire the acquisition of a potassium-rich fruit comestible of ''substantial'' magnitude." [[hottip:translation:"I want a big banana."]]

* ''{{Rome}}'' subverted this one; Pullo (a common soldier who was not the sharpest knife in the drawer) would occasionally come out with some big ol' Latinate word, which seemed out of place in his mouth...until you realized, hey, he's ''speaking Latin''.

* An email in one of the computer in DeusExHumanRevolution talks about the lack of chairs.

* In one episode of ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'', [[WorkingClassHero Jane]] [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]]/objects to this, when she and [[NonIdleRich]] are having lunch at a [[FancyDinner fancy restaurant]] for a case.

-->'''Jane:''' Wh- We don't call those ''solid vertical room separators''!

* V of ''VForVendetta'' introduces himself like this, complete with [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal oodles of alliteration.]] He calms down eventually, but still speaks very intelligently. It's pretty epic, and implies that somebody pillaged a thesaurus a few times, specifically, the sections of a thesaurus between the letters "U" and "W".

The polar opposite of BuffySpeak and LaymansTerms. BigWords redirects here, for those of us who prefer to avert this trope in RealLife. Contrast the LaconicWiki. Also note the similarity to TechnoBabble. May require one to have a TranslatorBuddy.

* OlderThanDirt: This seems to be a characteristic of ancient Mesopotamian religious poetry. Apparently, the scribes who wrote them consulted ancient dictionaries for the express purpose of using very obscure words and wildly obsolete grammar to MindScrew [[ViewersAreMorons their audience]].