History Main / SesquipedalianLoquaciousness

* Jupiter Jones, of ''Literature/TheThreeInvestigators'', employs this method of verbal communication habitually, although not necessarily invariably. And the Archbishop in ''Henry V'', whose loquaciousness over Henry's right to the French crown is usually played for laughs but also hides the reality that Henry's claim to the ''English'' crown was almost as weak (his father having been a usurper).

** This often gets inverted in countries where medical terminology is based on the local language (like aforementioned Poland, for example), because it makes reading the papers written in foreign languages (or conversing with foreign colleagues) much more difficult in comparison to the use the universal Latin or Latinised terms.

* Promos are a good way for a wrestler to build his/her character, explain their motivations, etc. Some will occasionally slip into this. Wild Red Berry made reading dictionaries his hobby, and would take out ads in newspapers in oreder [[CheapHeat to insult fans]] and his opponents with his extensive vocabulary.

* Hermione Granger in ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''. Examples include "Viktor's more of a physical being. I mean, he's not particularly loquacious"; "Again obvious though potentially problematic". This isn't present in the other films though.

-=->"I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically."\\

* A RunningGag in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''.
** Jack Sparrow says, "I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically."
** "I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means 'No'."

** Memorably {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984'' 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.)
--->'''[[ComicBook/MonicaRambeau Captain Marvel:]]''' H-how'd we get here? I mean, one minute we're checking out this giant whatchamacallit in Central Park, then *POOF* the Final Frontier!\\

'''[[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]]:''' That's obvious Richards!\\

** Adding to the trope, The Thing is the inverse, not because he's dumb but because he's plain-spoken. He can generally understand what Reed is saying even when others don't and sometimes acts as the TranslatorBuddy. But some writers forget he's a former astronaut and write him as the big dumb guy because of the way he talks, which itself is a meta example with writers inferring the character trait because of this trope.
* Doctor Henry [=McCoy=] (a.k.a. ComicBook/{{Beast|MarvelComics}} of the ''ComicBook/XMen'') does this all the time. In most incarnations, it's for the joy of wordplay -- everyone he works with already knows he's a genius -- though it undoubtedly has a side effect of convincing people he's never met before that [[GeniusBruiser even mutants who look like him can possess an enormous vocabulary]]. Interestingly, in his earliest appearances in the X-Men comic, he was not portrayed as particularly intelligent. However, Stan Lee decided his behavior too closely resembled the Thing from the Fantastic Four and upgraded his intelligence and vocabulary in order to set him apart.
** And he does it with insults, too; "go suck eggs" becomes:
--->'''Hank:''' Why don't you go orally extract embryonic fluid from a hen's egg?
** The ''X-Men Noir'' version of the Beast, while genuinely intelligent (but not to the exaggerated levels of the normal one), goes out of his way to use larger words that he doesn't quite understand because it gives him a stronger air of intelligence.
* On the magic side of the MU coin, we have ComicBook/DoctorStrange. Granted, half the words he uses ARE made-up, but it's still fun trying to follow him through a convoluted explanation of his spellwork.
* Forge of the X-Men does this a couple of times. One time, he went into a lengthy plan involving geometry at a football game huddle causing everyone to get confused.

* The Bash Brothers from ''[[ComicBook/TheUltraverse Sludge]]'' happen to be {{Genius Bruiser}}s who tend to use words as big as their biceps. Considering Burke is a lawyer and his brother Monroe is a doctor, this is more or less expected.

* ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark'' 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.''
** Though to be fair, he IS telling the history of the creation and eventual destruction of the world. These things take time.

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

* As part of an effort to appear more intelligent than he is, [[Franchise/GIJoe Cobra Commander]] can often be found using very advanced words, especially if Creator/LarryHama happens to be writing the story. Perhaps the greatest use of this was in a ''Transformers vs. GI Joe'' comic wherein he called Zarana "steatopygous" (i.e. she has a big butt).
* The X-Men's Dr. Nemesis often does this, ''specifically'' as a means to insult or talk down to anyone he believes to be less intelligent than himself. That is to say, ''[[InsufferableGenius everyone]]''. It gets hilariously played with when a telepathic starfish latches onto his face and begins broadcasting all of his inner thoughts:
--> '''Nemesis:''' Eat viral liquefaction, unethically cloned carbon-waste! I'll put my science in you! I'll put my science in ''all'' of you! (I have no idea what I'm saying)

--> '''Grimlock:''' [[LampshadeHanging "Oh, yes, it is I, Grimlock... and so much more now. To be specific, that would be 'so much more than you, now'. It does appear that there are certain linguistic idiosyncrasies that I, Grimlock, am still stuck with, however. But mustn't complain too much,]] [[VerbalTic wot?]]"
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', Lex Luthor says he managed to travel through time with a portal "generated when acetylsalicylic acid is irradiated at a 108 megahertz frequency"...in other words, he "irradiated" some aspirin tablets with an FM radio. Presumably this is a playful nod to [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] comics [[http://www.superdickery.com/time-travel-made-simple/ like this one]].

* Drax of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' has a wide vocabulary and sometimes speaks in unnecessarily big words. In a bit of delicious {{Irony}}, the word "thesaurus" is apparently not part of this vocabulary, as he [[CallingMeALogarithm takes offense at being called a "walking thesaurus"]].

* Both the RedSkull and Dr. Arnim Zola in ''[[{{Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger}} Captain America: The First Avenger]]''.

* Judge Joe Brown often uses this trope, apparently in an attempt to try to add some class to his "folksy" image (and possibly to intimidate the clueless people who come on his show), but instead, he usually ends up coming across as pompous.

** The [=MP3=] page at UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork is a great example of this. See the page history for an apology from the entry's author saying why it's so difficult to explain the inner workings of an audio codec without lapsing into {{Technobabble}}. To drive the point home, the [=MP3=] codec involves [[{{Technobabble}} discrete digital signals, pulse-code modulation, sampling frequency, discrete Fourier transform, frequency domain, filtering, convolution, Huffmann coding, information entropy, psychoacoustic modeling, bit rate, quantization, and media streaming]].

** One episode has Homer start talking like this after a SleepLearning tape intended to curb his hunger is switched with a vocabulary builder. "Lamentably, no. My gastronomic rapacity knows no satiety." Later played with, when Homer loses his vocabulary without regaining his ability to communicate succinctly.

* Promos are a good way for a wrestler to build his/her character, explain their motivations, etc. Some will occasionally slip into this. And then you have Wrestling/JohnMorrison, who ''always'' talks like this, seemingly rambling on and segueing from topic to topic without any real connection to the original topic whatsoever. Which is made to be even more ridiculous when compared to his (former) tag team partner, "Wrestling/TheMiz", who speaks in a ''[[YouNoTakeCandle very]]'' basic fashion (who used the Marine rallying cry "OOO-RAH!" as a period)[[note]]Which makes no sense since he was never actually in the Marines[[/note]]. Morrison is a blatant CaptainErsatz of [[Music/TheDoors Jim Morrison]] who tended to talk like this in interviews.

* ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'': Too many to count, but [[https://www.homestuck.com/problem-sleuth/1518 this]] page is probably the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} example.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140209180007/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4269 Fucshia teases Crimney about using "troglodyte."]]

* Brainiac Five, from ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' is another excellent example. Some of the incarnations of him are actually consistently annoyed that he has to "dumb it down" for his fellow Legionnaires.

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', the hyper-intelligent fuzzy monster Molly peppers her speech with big, obscure, or antiquarian words -- but she is equally likely to use teenage slang or kindergarten kiddie-speak. Galatea makes an observation of her sister's odd speech patterns [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20080920.html here.]]

--->'''Cap'n Turbot:''' It's perplexing, how to pull a poor pachyderm up such a steep perpendicular precipice.
--->'''Francois''': ''(confused)'' Uh...what?

>'''The Thing:''' Hey Torch -- why don'tcha just shut up and look awestruck like the rest of us?

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': [[TheSmartGuy Mr. Cat]] has the tendency to do this sometimes. Of course, nobody understands what he's talking about, since he's SurroundedByIdiots, so he ends up having to explain it in simpler terms.

* ''Film/TombstoneRashomon'': Doc Holliday and Johnny Behan are better educated than most of the others invoved in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (or, [[InsistentTerminology as Doc would insist]], 'on Fremont Street') and like to cultivate the impression of being gentlemen by using large words and speaking in a grandiloquent style. Cononel Halford is also educated, but his vocal affection runs more to poetic turns of phrase rather than unnecessary verbiage.

*** The codes of ICD-10 are so thorough that it is possible to express "Ran over and cut in half by a train" with them. If it has happened to someone anywhere there's a code. For example, W61.61XD means "bitten by duck ''again''". Yes, there are distinct codes for being bitten by a duck and being bitten by a duck a subsequent time.

%%* Plenty of Creator/PGWodehouse characters, from Literature/{{Jeeves|AndWooster}} to Literature/{{Psmith}}, often accompanied by SophisticatedAsHell. Even [[UpperClassTwit Bertie]] and other characters prone to BuffySpeak tend to indulge in this [[RuleOfFunny just for laughs]].

* Mira and Ao, the main duo in ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', have different communication styles when explaining astronomy to the general public. While Mira tend to over-simplify things, Ao falls into this trope as has the tendency to use very exact and technical vocabulary regardless of the audience. The effect of this varies; Ao's explanations scared a toddler, but got a few other people interested in astronomy.

Instigating altercations such as these is of dubious sagacity!''\\