Definition of magniloquent
- magniloquent boasts
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Magnus means "great in Latin;" "loqui" is a Latin verb meaning "to speak." Combine the two and you get "magniloquus," the Latin predecessor of "magniloquent." English speakers started using "magniloquent" in the 1600s - even though we’d had its synonym "grandiloquent" since the 1500s. ("Grandiloquent" comes from Latin grandiloquus, which combines "loqui" and "grandis," another word for "great" in Latin.) Today, these synonyms continue to exist side by side and to be used interchangeably, though "grandiloquent" is the more common of the two.
First Known Use: 1640See Words from the same year
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