WOTD: Blandiloquent

(Adjective)

Pronunciation: [blæn-'di-lê-qwênt] Listen

Definition: Smooth-talking, honey-tongued; flattering.

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Usage: Today's word is another tottering on the brink of extinction—most dictionaries have already given up on it. The Oxford English Dictionary has retained the noun, "blandiloquence," and an adjectival cousin, "blandiloquous." We need to retain this word, however, if for no other reason than it sounds better than "smooth-talking."

Suggested Usage: When today's word was last used, it, too, had acquired the pejorative sense of "smooth-talking," "Some blandiloquent used-car salesman convinced Millicent to buy a 1986 Chevy with 150,000 miles on it." However, since we must revive it, we might just as well revive it as a neutral term, "Bridget is so easily attracted to blandiloquent men that we don't let her go out with subscribers to yourDictionary's Word of the Day."

Etymology: Today's is another case of lexical larceny by Mother English, this time of Latin blandiloquentia "smooth-talking," a compound composed of blandus "soft" + loquor "to talk," whose verbal noun is loquentia "talking, talk." Oddly enough, the PIE root underlying bland- is *mol- "soft" (cf. Italian molle "soft") in the usual three ablaut flavors, including *mel- and *ml-. The word-initial combination [ml] sometimes became [bl] in Latin and Greek, hence Latin "blandus" with a suffix –nd. In Greek we find malakos "soft," in Serbian, mlad "young," and in Russian molodoy "young." English inherited this root through the Germanic languages as "melt" and "mild."

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