📚 Overly fancy language 🤓 A show-off scholar 🖋️ A small ink pot

inkhorn

9.9

A person who shows off learning by using rare, complicated words

noun
/ˈɪŋkˌhɔrn/

Archaic

: pedante

His reputation as an inkhorn grew as he continuously peppered his speeches with unnecessary jargon.

Examples

The professor often sounded like an inkhorn, using obscure vocabulary that confused his students.
Instead of simplifying his points, he chose to act like an inkhorn, showcasing his vast but impractical vocabulary.
In the satirical version below, the fat and sottish Boswell cavorts with his journal clutched in one hand and his inkhorn dangling from a buttonhole.

Blog text (24)

Synonyms

clever clogs

vsinkhorn

Offensive

1 8.5

A person who shows off knowledge and annoys others

shows off through complex words rather than general clever behaviour

vocabulist

vsinkhorn

Archaic

9.9

A person who often uses unusual words to impress others

prefers such words specifically to display learning and superiority

wordmonger

vsinkhorn

Offensive

9.9

A person who uses fancy words to seem important

uses rare or fancy words to show off learning rather than careless misuse

dictionary-monger

vsinkhorn

Offensive

9.9

A person who often corrects how others use words and their meanings

uses rare or fancy words to display learning not to study definitions

How Pedantic

inkhorn

Archaic

9.9

pedant

Offensive

2 8.6

scholar

281 4.1

Surface Forms

inkhorn singular

inkhorns plural

Morphology

inkhorn = ink + horn (semi-transparent) = ink + horn

The noun meaning 'a person who shows off learning' is a figurative extension from the literal compound (an object associated with scholars), so the relation to the parts is indirect.

Etymology

Inkhorn first named a small horn that held ink, and later people used it for a person who used many rare, showy words. So an inkhorn is a person who 'shows off learning' by using difficult or very old words.