Word of the Day: macroverbumsciolist

macroverbumsciolist (n)

A person who is ignorant of large words, or a person who pretends to know a word, then secretly refers to a dictionary.

"I'm feeling cantankerous," Austin said. Garrick smiled wanly and said nothing. It suddenly occurred to Austin that Garrick had no idea what he meant. "Cranky, I mean," he said. "You know -- testy, ornery, grouchy...."

"I am not a macroverbumsciolist," Garrick said, dourly. "Triple word score!"
--Leahcim Setag, Strange Loops

I only use online lexicons these days, but I still have an superannuated, ponderous, chunky, crimson, hardcover copy of the American Heritage Dictionary. It resides under the mouse pad adjacent to our decrepit desktop computer. I'm thinking of hollowing it out (the dictionary) and using it to store oddments, jetsam, and View-Master reels.