Rhopalic Fantastic

Here's an interesting word from our daily installment of A. Word. A. Day-by Anu Garg. More interesting though is the example which uses the rhopalic construction. Absolutely amazing and a fine piece of craftsmanship. Read on:

rhopalic

PRONUNCIATION:
(ro-PAL-ik)

MEANING:
adjective: Having each successive word longer by a letter or syllable.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin rhopalicus, from Greek rhopalos (club, tapered cudgel).


NOTES:
A rhopalic verse or sentence is one that balloons -- where each word is a letter or a syllable longer. The word is also used as a noun. Here's a terrific example of a rhopalic by Dmitri Borgmann:
"I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalises intercommunications' incomprehensibleness."


USAGE:
"Soapy fired off a rhopalic sentence, that is, one in which each word is one letter longer than the word that precedes it:
'I am the only dummy player, perhaps, planning maneuvers calculated brilliantly, nevertheless outstandingly pachydermatous, notwithstanding unconstitutional unprofessionalism.'"
Alan Truscott; Talking About Behavior; The New York Times; Oct 26, 1986.