I remember that there was a word that meant being knowledgeable about many words, but I've forgotten what the word was.
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Linguist is often used.– user116032Commented Sep 6, 2015 at 19:52
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1A linguist, @user116032, is rather one who has learned about how languages work, and to what laws or regularities those workings tend to conform. I think the questioner is looking more for a word for the quality of having a huge vocabulary. Linguists may generally have above-average vocabularies, but that is not their defining quality.– Brian DonovanCommented Sep 6, 2015 at 20:10
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Disagree (but good point). You can be guaranteed a linguist has a huge vocabulary. I'll lurk and see what comes up.– user116032Commented Sep 6, 2015 at 20:35
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3@user116032 Just because lions have tails, and elephants have tails, does not mean lions are elephants. Linguist is no more suitable than lawyer or doctor or professor.– chosterCommented Sep 6, 2015 at 21:51
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1@user116032 No you're wrong, there's no guarantee at all that a linguist has a huge vocabulary.– curiousdanniiCommented Sep 7, 2015 at 7:48
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2 Answers
This thread may be of use. Here are some of the words suggested from it: "lexicomane, sesquipedalian, vocabularian, logophile". Their specific definitions are listed in the thread.
The OED has verbalist:
- One who is skilled in the use or knowledge of words.
1794 T. Taylor tr. Pausanias Descr. Greece I. Pref. p. viii, His meaning is, frequently, on this account, inaccessible to the most consummate verbalists.
1822 T. Taylor tr. Apuleius Metamorphosis 351 This blunder of the editor, who was otherwise a good verbalist, is a deplorable specimen of ignorance in things of the greatest importance.
1860–1 Philol. Soc. Trans. 164 The opinion of the best English verbalist I ever knew.
