Circumlocutor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who speaks in a roundabout, indirect way; someone who uses many words to express an idea rather than stating it simply; an individual prone to evasive or ambiguous speech
2. An individual characterized by the use of indirect, evasive language; a speaker who avoids straightforward expression by using excessive or elaborate phrasing; one who circumvents direct communication with verbose explanations
3. Someone who employs indirect, prolonged speech to avoid clear statements; a communicator who prefers elaborate wording to straightforward language; a person inclined to obfuscate meaning through excessive verbosity

Etymology: "Circumlocutor" is built from the Latin "circum," meaning "around," and "locutor," a speaker, from "loqui," "to speak." Put together, the literal sense is "one who talks around" a subject rather than straight at it. The Latin noun "circumlocutio" was used in classical rhetoric for the figure of speech that approaches a point indirectly, and English took over the word in the 16th century in that technical sense of roundabout expression. The agent form "circumlocutor" is a later step, formed in English on the model of the Latin noun. Its use for a person who habitually speaks in roundabout ways is recorded from the 17th century, so the word began as the name of a technique before it became a label for the speaker who relies on it.

Synonyms: evasive speaker, indirect speaker, periphrastic speaker, verbose speaker, wordy speaker

Antonyms: direct speaker, straightforward speaker, concise speaker