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A.Word.A.Day--inkhorn term

inkhorn term (INGK-horn turm) noun

An obscure, ostentatious, or bookish word, especially one derived from Latin or Greek.

[From the fact that such a term is used more in writing than in speech.]

"The flowery barbarisms of inkhorn terms vanished within years of the appearance of her (Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi's) book ...." Simon Winchester, Roget and His Brilliant, Unrivaled, Malign, and Detestable Thesaurus, The Atlantic Monthly (Boston), May 2001.

This week's theme: words about words.

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