Bonjour, linguaphiles! Welcome to today’s edition of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquence. Today’s word, like my salutation, will not be in English, but rather, a word from the Latin language - ‘pauciloquent.’

Pauciloquent is an adjective meaning someone who is brief in speech, or utters few words. You would probably not describe me, your host, as pauciloquent, as I am rarely of few words. This word comes from the classical Latin ‘pauciloquium’ where ‘paucus’ refers to little or few, and ‘loquor’ meaning ‘to speak’. You might say, ‘My dear, try not to be so pauciloquent when thanking your guests - Nanna so enjoys your speaking voice.’

As a noun, we use ‘pauciloquy’, defined as the use of few words when speaking, or ‘economical’ speech. In a sentence: ‘the President used paciloquy in his speech this evening, as he knew not what he was talking about.’ I shan’t make any allusions as to which president, of course. This is merely a hypothetical sentence in order to help clarify some language. You’re welcome.

‘Paucus’ comes from the Proto-Indo-European ‘peh2w-’, meaning few, and derivatives include, but are not limited to, ‘filly’, ‘foal’, ‘pauper’, ‘pedagogy’, ‘pediatric’, ‘pony’, ‘pool’, and ‘poor’! Phew! Fascinating that while originating from something that means ‘a little’ - some of these words refer to rather expansive concepts!

Of course, the antonym for pauciloquy is multioquy, which is an excess of words or talk. Here indeed you may find a more apt description of me! You might say, ‘I know not why, but multioquy appears to be used commonly amongst my extended relatives, particularly after Christmas punch.’

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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