Ciceronian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero or his famous style of elegant, balanced prose ; characterized by the polished, rhetorical manner of Cicero's oratory
2. Pertaining to Cicero, the celebrated Roman orator, or to his ornate and periodic style of writing ; resembling the flowing, eloquent manner that Cicero made famous
3. Of or connected with the Roman orator Cicero and his works ; marked by the grand, elaborately balanced eloquence associated with his speeches

Etymology: Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman statesman and orator, has given his name to a whole style of speech. "Ciceronian" comes from the Latin "Cicerōniānus", a derivative of "Cicero", and it describes writing or oratory that imitates his famously elaborate, balanced and polished Latin prose. The adjective's meaning is therefore tied directly to a single man rather than to a concept that existed before him. The word was formed by adding the Latin adjectival suffix "-ānus" to the name Cicero, the same pattern that produces Roman, Shakespearean or Johnsonian. Readers in English have used it mainly for a style of prose rather than for the man himself, so a "Ciceronian" sentence is one built with the rounded periods and carefully weighed clauses that Cicero's own speeches and letters display.

Synonyms: eloquent, oratorical, rhetorical