altisonant

English

Etymology

From Latin altus (“high”) +‎ sonans, present participle of sonare (“to sound”).

Adjective

altisonant (comparative more altisonant, superlative most altisonant)

  1. High-sounding; lofty or pompous.
    • 1612, [Miguel de Cervantes]; Thomas Shelton, transl., The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] William Stansby, for Ed[ward] Blount and W. Barret, →OCLC, page 6:
      He ſpent foure dayes deuiſing him a name: for (as he reaſoned to himſelfe) it was not fit that ſo famous a Knights horſe, and chiefly being ſo good a beaſt, ſhould want a knowne name; and therefore he endeuoured to giue him ſuch a one, as ſhould both declare what ſometime he had been, before he pertayned to a Knight errant, and alſo what preſently he was: for it ſtood greatly with reaſon, ſeeing his Lord and Maſter changed his eſtate and vocation, that he ſhould alter likewiſe his denomination, and get a new one, that were famous and altiſonant, as becommed the new order and exerciſe which he now profeſſed: […]

Translations

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for altisonant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

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