Pylimitics

The 19th Century was something of a golden age for English oratory; audiences would listen attentively to speeches that today would seem absurdly long. Not only that, they were accustomed to listening to sentence structures considerably more complex than we generally cope with now — arguably, more complex than many of us are able to cope with. Audiences were appreciative, too; oratory was carefully reviewed and a capable speaker was accorded considerable respect. 

All of that had effects on the language itself. There were words in common usage applied to the art and practice of speaking. One was “orotund.” It was a very complimentary term that meant a way of speaking that was “full, round, and imposing”. It’s derived from a phrase in Latin: “ore rotundo” (with rounded mouth), which appeared in Ars Poetica by Horace. The word is also closely related to “rotund” and “round”, because they share ancestry with “rota” (a wheel). 

The Penny Cyclopaedia in 1840 was particularly laudatory: “The name of orotund…is given to that natural or improved manner of uttering the elements, which exhibits them with a fulness, clearness, strength, smoothness, and a ringing or musical quality rarely heard in ordinary speech.” However, it wasn’t long before people began to notice that speechmaking sometimes has less admirable qualities; long-windedness, pretentiousness, and pomposity. This started to seep into the usage of “orotund” as soon as 1848, when The Book of Snobs included this:

 “Jawkins is a most pertinacious Club Snob. Every day he is at that fireplace, holding that Standard, of which he reads up the leading-article, and pours it out ore rotundo, with the most astonishing composure, in the face of his neighbour, who has just read every word of it in the paper.”

Nowadays “orotund” isn’t used much. When it is, though, the “bombastic; pompous” meaning is more common than the original. Modern audiences are somewhat less appreciative of oratory.