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Webster 1913 Edition


Sesquipedality

Sesˊqui-pe-dal′i-ty

,
Noun.
1.
The quality or condition of being sesquipedal.
Sterne.
2.
The use of sesquipedalian words; style characterized by the use of long words; sesquipedalism.

Definition 2024


sesquipedality

sesquipedality

English

Noun

sesquipedality (plural sesquipedalities)

  1. An instance or condition of being sesquipedalian.
    • 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 93:
      Imagine to yourself a little, squat, uncourtly figure of a Doctor Slop, of about four feet and a half perpendicular height, with a breadth of back, and a sesquipedality of belly, which might have done honour to a Serjeant in the Horse-Guards.