Desirous of grandiloquent wordsmithery

November 11, 2008 3:27 PM

Can anyone point me in the direction of a grandiloquent thesaurus?

Basically, I want to find overblown, unusual, pretentious, archaic, obscure, and intimidating words. Now I've found The Grandiloquent Dictionary some use in this regard, as are the two volumes of Foyle's Philavery. But, entertaining as these are, the problem is that both of these are dictionaries, i.e. lists of words in alphabetical order followed by definitions. So if I know the definition I want but not the word, it's no use. What I really want to do is look up a word by synonym (or even better - by description of the underlying concept, like in a reverse dictionary), and be presented with the most grandiloquent word to use...

Anyone know if such a thing exists, online or off?

posted by iivix to writing & language (8 comments total)

Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words.
posted by jayder at 3:48 PM on November 11, 2008

... but it has the same problem that your other two examples have, if I recall correctly.
posted by jayder at 3:49 PM on November 11, 2008

My aunt got me a copy of The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate. I like it.

They also make a dictionary.
posted by charlesv at 4:26 PM on November 11, 2008

Random House Word Menu might be close. I've seen similarly organized thesaurus/word menu in used books stores too.
posted by ejaned8 at 4:41 PM on November 11, 2008

Got to say, I have been led seriously astray by many of Grandiloquent's definitions. It seems most of their entries (and maybe this is true of the genre) were plucked from other lists of obscure words without any effort or concern for correct definitions.

And incidentally, if there isn't a word to describe words which are so rare they are only found in dictionaries, and incidentally may have never actually been used outside of a dictionary or obscurantist list, then some should coin a sniglet for it right now.
posted by adoarns at 9:18 PM on November 11, 2008

I say roll with the classic - - Roget's byzantine, yet logical taxonomic two-step still sends my imagination reeling like no other...
posted by fairmettle at 9:49 PM on November 11, 2008

I agree with fairmettle - Roget's editors have a policy of not dropping archaic words until they are absolutely dead and buried. I spent some time this summer doing research along related lines and Roget's is the best AFAIC.
posted by meosl at 3:45 AM on November 12, 2008

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I definitely appreciate the heads-up on Roget's, having a flick through it certainly seems to cover some obscure and fascinating terms, and better still you can browse two versions online at Bartleby.com. And The Highly Selective Thesaurus is going on my Christmas list, if just for the title alone.
posted by iivix at 11:34 AM on November 12, 2008