Logorrhea is the excessive use of words. Happily, I’ve known only one logorrhean (my term for someone who uses words excessively, who tends to express something with an overload of words). She was a good friend at college, but I loved her dearly (the spirit of independence, her detachment from family) and suffered through the chatter..
In writing, I tend to be careful about using too many words and am inclined to under- rather than overwrite. I’ve noticed for years that American writers and journalists are generally free of verbiage. It makes for good, easy reading. Some novels read as a teenager–Thackeray, Dickens, Dostoyevsky–had logorrhea that formed a huge cloud. It needed to be pierced to get to the gist. I stayed away.
I prefer Hemingway, or the Bible.
