I never would have picked up that word if it had not been for a bookworm back in 9th grade. But he was a cool guy. We had an English teacher whom he would always upstage with an impressive vocabulary. When he pulled this one out of his hat the class didn't stop laughing for 5 minutes at least. And the blushing never left the teacher's face.
Needless to say, pulchritudinous, has been burned in my brain.