Highfalutin --- A great exercise, Petru! We used to analyse Obama's inaugurals and I found that exercise highly rewarding because you could hear Obama's own voice, not just the speech writers'.

You are right about the checklist of points that have to be communicated. This kind of analysis of rhetoric helps us understand why we all become a little cynical about 'highfalutin' language.

"Highfalutin": (especially of speech, writing, or ideas) pompous or pretentious.

Source author: Biljana Scott biscott@diplomacy.edu