Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:teodmpoteaopofmp 2091.jpg|frame|[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/fashion-swat/science-fair-swat.php?page=9 In other words], the effects of [[wikipedia:Drosophila melanogaster|fruit flies]] on the [[wikipedia:Polyphenol oxidase|browning]] of [http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/apple.htm apples].]]

 

''Sesquipedalian'': A long word, or characterized by the use of long words. From the Latin roots meaning "a foot and a half long."

Ironically, [[wikipedia:Williams syndrome|Williams Syndrome]] can lead to this kind of behavior. People with [[Asperger's Syndrome]] may do this in an attempt to be as precise as possible, ironically making their oratorical sonorities too pleonastic to be expeditiously assimilated.

 

 

Very heavily associated with the [[Steampunk]] genre in particular, and [[Truth in Television]] in that case, as the Victorians ''did'' speak a form of English that was more complex and verbose, and less dumbed down than current usage.

 

The polar opposite of [[Buffy-Speak]]. [[Big Words]] redirects here, for those of us who prefer to avert this trope in [[Real Life]]. Contrast the [[Laconic]]. Also note that the similarity to [[Techno Babble]]. May require one to have a [[Translator Buddy]].

 

* Episode 22 of Azumanga Daioh does this is the English Dub. In the Japanese version, it's just [[Gratuitous English]].

* Leeron in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' frequently does this after the [[Time Skip]], with "short versions" inevitably following after he loses his audience.

{{quote|'''Leeron:''' Genetic diversity via sexual reproduction is the key to evolution.

''(confused [[Reaction Shot]] from the Dai-Gurren Brigade)''

"Oh!" "Of course!" }}

** Lordgenome's Head is pretty bad at this too.

** Yuki will often provide one or two syllable answers to rather important questions, be prompted (usually by Kyon) into giving longer answers, and the longer answers end up in this incomparable form.

* Matsuki from ''[[Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou]]'' is prone to this with regards to school work.

 

== Occidental sequential graphic novels (Comic Books) ==

** It's a bit of a running gag that Reed is all too often explaining what a certain [[MacGuffin|plot-relevant piece of machinery]] does rather than actually putting it to use, which causes The Thing endless annoyance, since he's the one doing the heavy lifting when they could be done by now.

** Memorably [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in [[Secret Wars]] 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 [[War Machine (Comic Book)|James Rhodes]] instead of Tony Stark, and the Hulk had Bruce Banner's mind.)

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

** 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 [[Translator Buddy]]. 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.

 

 

* Dennis in ''[[The Luck of Dennis St. Michel, Viscount Stokington|The Luck of Dennis St Michel Viscount Stokington]]'' does this a ''lot,'' even when [[Hypocritical Humor|decrying the same habit]] in his nemesis.

{{quote|"The ragged figure looming in the dusky storm-light bore little resemblance to the pompous young naif who delighted in using a type or kind of sesquipedalian loquaciousness to mock his foes. In truth, I had found his book-learning pretentious; I know a pretty word or two, but do not feel the need to flaunt them at every interval."}}

** At least in McGill's case, it's inverted in that the story makes it patently obvious that Everett is using the big words because he's ''trying'' to sound smarter, and because he ''does'' think he's smarter than his two less-inclined companions.

* V of ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' introduces himself like this, complete with [[Alliteration|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, [[Captain Obvious|specifically,]] the sections of a thesaurus between the letters "U" and "W".

'''Evey Hammond:''' ... Are you like a crazy person? }}

* In ''[[The Last Boy Scout]]'', the two heroes are getting pummeled by an unusually verbose Mook's large companion, leading [[Deadpan Snarker|Bruce Willis's character]] to exclaim, "Shit, we're being beat up by the inventor of Scrabble!"

* Can't forget ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]''. Dr. Calvin is very much like this in the beginning, though she sort of thaws out.

* Egon Spengler from ''[[Ghostbusters]]''.

{{quote|'''Pete Venkman:''' Hi, Egon. How's school? I bet those science chicks really dig that large cranium of yours, huh?

'''Pete Venkman:''' ... }}

* Doctor Emmet Brown from ''[[Back to The Future]]'' does this occasionally, though not as often (or as badly) as his counterpart from the animated series (see below).

** He talks that way [http://www.online-literature.com/kipling/165/ in the book], too.

{{quote|'''Bi-coloured Python Rock Snake:''' Rash and inexperienced traveler, we will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do not, it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the armor-plated upper deck ''(and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the Crocodile)'' will permanently vitiate your future career.}}

* Christopher Paolini apparently feels the need to use a thesaurus at all times with the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'', sparking copious mixed opinions from readers. Some find his writing captivating and interesting, while others basically write it off as a load of crap. Either way, you can't argue that he follows this trope to the letter, and younger readers may want to keep a dictionary open while traversing his prose.

* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Neverwhere]]'', Mr. Croup seems practically incapable of pronouncing any ''bon mot'' of less than polysyllabic length, much to the confusion of Mr. Vandemar. At one point he describes himself and Mr. Vandemar as having "funny clothes and convoluted circumlocutions", to which Mr Vandemar responds indignantly "I haven't got a circumlo..." Mr. Croup explains that the word means "a way of speaking around something. A digression. Verbosity."

** Would you believe he occasionally used this for [[Deadpan Snarker|deadpan snarking]]? From ''[[The Dunwich Horror]]'': "But then, the homes and sheds of Dunwich's folk have never been remarkable for olfactory immaculateness."

* Continuing in the Lovecraft theme in ''[[The Laundry Series|The Laundry]]'', Charles Stross would often pay tribute to Lovecraft by jokingly describing eldritch-related things as "squamous and rugose". Of course, as his works take the [[Viewers Are Geniuses]] route, his own characters occasionally dip into this trope as well.

* Marmaduke Scarlet from ''The Little White Horse'' speaks like this. He's a guy who works in a kitchen.

* Pretty much anything written by [[Stephen Donaldson]] tends to veer into this trope at times; particularly the Thomas Covenant books, where he also has a tendency to utilize archaic or obscure definitions for many commonly used terms.

or favor to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.'' }}

* Howard Hibble of the ''[[Jason Wander]]'' series is the leading expert on the aliens humanity is currently at war with, and occasionally lapses into this mode of speech. Lampshaded by Jason, who speaks normally but has good verbal skills, when discussing an alien device. Howard describes it as "a metallic, oblate spheroid." Jason translates this as "a tin football."

* In [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''[[Immortals]]'' series, one of the characters (Numair Salmalín) is encouraged by his father to speak like this, to prove that he actually went away to school.

'''James Hacker:''' I beg your pardon?

'''Sir Humphrey Appleby:''' It was... I. }}

** In the ''Hacker Diaries'', the fictional diaries of Jim Hacker and novelization of the ''[[Yes Minister]]'' series, it is stated that he lived out the last of his days in a home for the elderly deranged when "advancing years, [[Talkative Loon|without in any way impairing his verbal fluency, disengaged the operation of his mind from the content of his speech]]."

* In ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', the group have a conversation about Robin's new Argentinian boyfriend who can't speak English that well. When he arrives at the bar, they continue the conversation, but with longer words so he doesn't understand (he doesn't: he thinks they're talking about baseball). Funny, because their responses weren't all that different from before:

*** However, by Season 3, he called out a standard "It's Morphin' Time".

* Speaking of ''[[Power Rangers]]'', ''[[Power Rangers RPM|RPM's]]'' Dr. K does this on occasion (i.e. when she's not being blunt), including to hilarious effect in "Ghosts" when she threatens her leader, Colonel Truman, with inserting laxative into his coffee mug, which would lead to a case of explosive diarrhea.

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

{{quote|'''Monica:''' All right, what was this sentence, originally?

* [[Isaac Hayes]]' "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" ("My gastronomical stupensity is really satisfied when you're loving me...")

* Michael Nesmith's post-[[The Monkees|Monkees]] solo work is notorious for this, though his most verbose song, "Wax Minute" ("minute" as in small) was actually written by someone else.

** An immense plethora of the sesquipedalian tendencies of the lyrics can ostensibly be attributed to vocalist Greg Graffin, the band's resident "Master of Science."

* ''A lot'' of the super lyrical rappers in [[Hip Hop]] fall into this trope.

*** I optically perceive the actions you have performed upon the above discussion.

**** I would like to relate to my compatriots above that i am currently revolving to and fro upon the coniferous foundation of my abode, exhibiting so much hilarity i am of the opinion my posterior is detaching from my frame.

* [http://www.textfiles.com/holiday/night.hum Twas The Nocturnal Segment of the Diurnal Period] (aka Twas the Night Before Christmas).

 

* The Ultimate Warrior was also famous for this, interspersing feral snarling, grunting, and shouting with long, rambling promos peppered with million-dollar words used almost-correctly. In his later years, he even started throwing in words he made up out of whole cloth, apparently believing his character motivations to be too complex to explain in the English language as it stands. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA3bUTFNtY4 Case in point...]

* Bob Backlund's mid-'90s comeback [[Heel Turn]] 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, un the promo where Chris Benoit was drafted into the Horsemen, Pillman ranted about how Sting "regaled [his] obsequious lapdogs with [his] reprehensible act."

* Gorilla Monsoon was fond of using obscure medical terminology in his play-by-play. A shot to the back of the head would be described as hitting "the external occipital protuberance," while a chair-shot to the back would be said to have damaged "the subscapularis area."

 

 

== Stage-acted media (Theater) ==

* ''[[Hamlet]]'' spoofs it with the character Osric, who desperately tries to look intelligent by talking this way. Hamlet mocks him by going even farther over the top with it. As you might imagine, a [[Shakespeare]] speech that's deliberately written to be obtuse and impenetrable is quite something to witness.

** Let's not forget Polonius and his love of speaking many words! "Brevity is the soul of wit," indeed.

* ''[[The Mikado]]'': Pooh-Bah "can trace [his] ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule."

** The [[Modern Major-General]] in ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' does a bit of this too, though more on the loquacious side.

* Parodied to the extreme with Lucky's three page monologue in ''[[Waiting for Godot]]''. Read through it carefully and there is actually a philosophical point being made, but it is embroidered with so much verbal diaorreah, non-sequitors and just sheer nonsense words that it sounds like a complete load of gibberish.

* In one version of the ''[[Three Little Pigs]]'', the judge's page speaks this to a ridiculous extent.

* Jerry, a character in [[Voices From the High School]], decides to imitate the language of Shakespeare, much to his friend's chagrin.

 

 

{{quote|Ishi: "Shoot those tanks, the blast compression will create a-"

Hunt: "Shoot the tanks, that's all you gotta say!" *BOOM* }}

* One of the [[True Final Boss]] in ''[[Hellsinker]]'' was called "[[Crosses the Line Twice|Floccinaucinihilipilification]]".

* Near the end of ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]] Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood'', when Guybrush asks De Singe what he's doing with the Vaycaylian Wind Control Device ({{spoiler|before attempting to toss [[MacGuffin|La Esponja Grande]] into the device}}), De Singe replies, "You see, using my handbuilt Harpsichronitron, in conjunction with my Oscimoligrophiscope to seek out a resonant frequency with the Vaycaylian Climatiphone, I hope to anatomize living tissue on a macroscopic basis!" Guybrush, however, becomes clueless and can ask De Singe to repeat with the purposes of all this machinery, and De Singe can translate that he's using the piano device ("this machine") to make the Wind Control Device ("that machine") "smash people into a fine powder," which, of course, causes Guybrush to say, "[[And That's Terrible|Hey, that's not very nice]]!"

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', 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 observation of her sister's odd speech patterns [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20080920.html here.]

* Rocky, of ''[[Lackadaisy Cats]]'', the majority of the time.

'''Avril:''' ARRAAWRGH! ''(slams Rocky against a wall and throws him to the ground)'' }}

** This becomes even more noticeable when he's around Freckle, who rarely says more than a couple words at a time.

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'''s Hannelore Ellicot-Chatham will often descend into this, especially if she's having a nervous fit. Faye can also pull it off when she's feeling especially snarky.

* ''[[Suicide for Hire]]'''s characters all use long words, and a lot of 'em. The comic's banner has a caption reading "Yeah, it's got dialogue. If you don't like it, you are entitled to bite my ass."

{{quote|'''Ambrosia:''' Felicia, I'm '''''twelve'''''. Don't throw around big words.}}

* ''[[Exterminatus Now]]''. Professor Lewis [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20100613.html tries to explain] a concept to the (somewhat pro)tagonists, and fails utterly. Finally, he went in the ''exact opposite'' direction, and summed it up:

{{quote|'''Professor Lewis:''' [[Negative Space Wedgie|Shiny void rift]] plus [[Kill Sat|big space gun]] [[The End of the World as We Know It|make world go 'splody.]]}}

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Grace's attempt to make a bit of a political statement in the sketchbook resulted in a bad case of [http://egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2010-12-09 this trope.]

 

 

* Ezekiel from ''BitF City''. His friend Bola "Translates".

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz_K1Gjrx8c How very charitable] [[Save the Princess|of Her Majesty]] [[Hotel Mario|to summon]] [[Super Mario Bros.|us]] to a social gathering of prepared foods and open-handed cordiality regardless of the immense difference in our societal statuses.

* A number of YouTube videos expand popular videos spoken in vernacular to long-winded pseudo-intellectual conversations backed with classical music, e.g. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBu83-0vJbg An encounter with the Entrepreneur of Sensory Shapeshifting with Purpose of Infiltrationary Actions], known originally as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTj6tauY1JU Meet The Spy].

 

{{quote|'''Plankton:''' Felicitations, malefactors! I am endeavoring to misappropriate the formulary for the preparation of affordable comestibles!}}

** WHO WILL JOIN HIM?!?!?!?!?

* Reggie Moonshroud from ''[[Gravedale High]]'' often talks like this.

* Wind Whistler on ''[[My Little Pony]]''. "This meteorological debabacle is quite anomalous." Peach Blossom too: "I will reconnoiter post-haste and ascertain what has transpired!"

** In the same vein, Twilight Sparkle from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''.

* Edd in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', often to the annoyance of his less-educated peers.

* Tish in ''[[The Weekenders]]''. It becomes a plot point of an episode where the others refer to it as "Tishing" and it becomes a widespread saying.

* As Brainstorm (a "sea food platter with a rather high IQ", as he puts it), [[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben]] is prone to using extremely large words. [[Fake Brit|With a British accent.]] His previous "smart form", Greymatter, tended to use words of a more normal size unless referring to scientific principles.

* In the 2003 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series more than any other incarnation, Donatello is guilty of this. He frequently geeks out about future technology or the chemical properties of things he runs across, and [[Techno Babble]] ensues. One of the others (usually Michelangelo, but occasionally Raphael) [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledges this]], and usually asks him to repeat himself in English this time. Though sometimes the writers sacrifice snappier dialogue to remind us that he's the smart one:

{{quote|'''Donatello:''' If we take the south conduit, it'll ''intersect'' with the old drainage tunnel!}}

{{quote|'''The Mayor:''' There is a stealing of sorts happening at the place where money is given and taken, that is to say deposited and withdrawn -- and sometimes redistributed and loaned. But currently the taker is taking that which is not his, thus performing an act of illegality, which could result in incarceration within the confines of a penal facility, that is to say prison, jail, hoosegow, et cetera.}}

* In an episode of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', Fireside Girl Gretchen ([[Meganekko|the one who wears glasses]]) earns her "Saying a Word No One Else in the Room Knows" accomplishment patch by actually saying the world "sesquipedalian".

* In the [[Rankin Bass]] special ''[[Twas the Night Before Christmas]]'', the Mayor parodies this. Whenever he wants to sound important, he attempts this, then gives up partway through.

{{quote|"Of all the perfidious purveyors of chicanery I have ever had the misfortune to... oh, heck. Go home!"}}

 

== Nonfictional depictions of the current recurring theme (Real Life) ==

* Another U.S. Vice-President who engaged in this was Spiro T. Agnew. He also liked alliteration. Instead of calling the naysayers 'naysayers', for example, he called them 'nattering nabobs of negativism'. Many of these locutions were the product of the mind of his speechwriter William Safire, who would later go on to write the "[[Grammar Nazi|On Language]]" column for ''The New York Times''.

* Composer Igor Stravinsky lapsed into this sometimes; an example taken at random from his book ''Poetics of Music'': "The true hierarchy of phenomena, as well as the true hierarchy of relationships, takes on substance and form on a plane entirely apart from that of conventional classifications. Let me entertain the hope that the clarification of this thesis will be one of the results of my course, a result I greatly desire."

* The winner of the 2006 Ig Nobel prize in Literature was Daniel M. Oppenheimer of Princeton University for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly"

* Baseball Hall of Famer "Orator Jim" O'Rourke.

* [[Richard Feynman]], in his memoirs, recalled attending a lecture in [[Hard on Soft Science|some social science or other]] wherein he encountered the following sentence: "The individual member of the social community often receives his information via visual, symbolic channels." {{spoiler|"Feynman "translated" this sentence as follows: "People read."}}

* The preface to ''The United States Department of Defense Fact File'' admonishes readers against this trope. See the [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness/Quotes|Quotes tab]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Language Tropes]]

[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]