loquacious: Word A Day from AlphaDictionary.com

loquacious •

Pronunciation: lo-kway-shês • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Very talkative, chatty, using lots of words, verbose.

Notes: The noun from today's word is loquacity [lo-qwæ-sê-ti] and the adverb loquaciously. A related adjective is loquent "talking, speaking", which turns up mostly in technical writing as in, "Do chimpanzees comprise a loquent species?" This adjective yields a noun, loquency "talk, the ability to speak". The synonym of today's word, talkative, is an accepted lexical violation in that it is made up of a native stem, talk, plus a Latin suffix -ative, two grammatically incompatible constituents. But perhaps I am waxing loquacious myself and should stop here to leave room for a few other comments on this interesting word.

In Play: Today's word is the antonym of an earlier Good Word, reticent "taciturn, untalkative". "Molly was such a reticent child but since starting school she has become positively loquacious." Loquacity can be fun and entertaining or it can get in the way: "We want to keep today's meeting short, so I may interrupt anyone who becomes too loquacious."

*At the ladies meeting Saturday, Norma referred to the telephone as the hell-a-phone. Implying becoming too loquacious is a drain on our spiritual life.  She even suggested that we should put a 20 min. time limit on phone conversations.