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1 Definition
Given to using long, often needlessly complicated words, or describing such words themselves.
2 In Use
His sesquipedalian emails made a simple scheduling question feel like a legal brief.
3 Word Origin
sesqui Lat. · one and a half → sesquipedalis Lat. · a foot and a half long → sesquipedalian 17th c. English
The word traces back to the Latin sesquipedalis, meaning a foot and a half long, itself built from sesqui (one and a half) plus pes (foot). Horace used the phrase sesquipedalia verba, foot and a half long words, to mock poets who reached for overblown language instead of clear expression. English borrowed the term in the seventeenth century, first as a literal measurement and eventually settling into its current meaning: a fondness for words so long they practically need their own zip code.
💡Fun Fact
There's a delicious irony baked into this word: sesquipedalian is itself a fairly hefty, multisyllabic specimen, meaning it describes exactly the kind of vocabulary it embodies. Writers and editors sometimes invoke it as a gentle warning against showing off, a reminder that clarity usually beats grandiosity. It shows up often in discussions of legal and academic writing, fields notorious for favoring the ornate over the plain. The related noun sesquipedalianism occasionally surfaces to describe the habit as a whole, though it's rare enough to make even sesquipedalian fans blink.
