I have a nifty little book called, The Gilded Tongue. My son, Alex, and I used to read from it frequently, taking delight in its absurdly pompous words. Sample:
Malison (MAL-uh-suhn): n. from Middle English malisoun, from Old French, from Latin maledictio, from maledictus, past participle of maledicere (to speak ill): a curse.
John hated Paul so much that he called down a malison on him.
He sent this funny Onion article to me a few days ago, saying it reminded him of the book. It's a slide show presentation by an English nobleman about how his family's "witless mooncalf" manservant ruined their various parties during 2016. It's definitely worth reading.
By the way, if you like unusual words but don't want to wade through Bill Kauffman's prose to find them all, all three of these books are good:
