lexiphanic

Example Sentences

• "Dr. Johnson has given an explanation of this passage, which is an amusing specimen of his Lexiphanic style: "to feel the convulsions of eructation without plenitude.""
• "The printer who undertook the work deſerves much credit, inasmuch as he had before him the numerous remnants of periodical magazines, which have lived to die a ſpeedy death, & which are ſufficient to terrify any one actuated by the motives of certain intereſt, and an inſured return. Every father ſhould introduce this work into his parlour. He will find ſound religion, and uſeful information upon all ſubjects, conveyed in chaſte language, and in a ſtile free from the bombaſt of the Lexiphanic, or the puerility of the hireling."
• "So what can you possibly say about someone who has actually compiled a dictionary of long and unusual words? […] “But Mrs. Byrne,” I said, “don’t you feel your dictionary might just metagrobolise (mystify) the average man and, worse, turn the harageous rodomontades (bold braggarts) among us into linguacious lexiphanics (talkative snobs)?”"
• "Lexiphanics, especially those who write for a living, usually have to hide their penchant for words from slashing editors, to whom such tendencies are anathema. Lexiphanics are people given to the use of pretentious terminology—and they are among those who will enjoy this little book of words [The Superior Person’s Little Book of Words]."
• "Kudos to you. Needed someone like you calling out the phoney lexiphanics."
• "I immediately perceived, and was very forceably ſtruck with the ſtrong reſemblance there ſubſiſts between Mr. [Samuel] J[ohnso]n’s character, and that of the Limouſin ſcholar in [François] Rabelais, and of Lexiphanes in Lucian. And I concluded, that an imitation of the latter would be admirably well ſuited to expoſe that falſe taſte and ridiculous manner of writing; and that it might alſo be of eminent uſe to letters, by decrying that abſurd Lexiphanick ſtile, which from the great and univerſal reputation this Pedant enjoyed, I reaſonably imagined had became faſhionable among us, and might, in a ſhort time, bring on an entire decline and corruption, nay, a total alteration of our language, as had been the caſe with the Roman tongue under the Emperors. Therefore, as ſoon as I had an opportunity, I ſet about the following work with all the diligence and application I was maſter of. In the courſe of it, beſides Mr. J⁠-⁠-⁠-⁠-⁠n’s, I carefully peruſed, it may ſafely be ſaid, for the firſt time, what other modern writings came in my way; and I generally found them more or leſs Lexiphanick in proportion to the ſhare of fame and reputation their ſeveral authors enjoyed."