using unusual, complicated words

[Anonymous]

PP, I also love plethora.

And, "sufficiency"

[Anonymous]

Also, "fair to middling" although that's a colloquialism.

Also, "colloquialism".

[Anonymous]

oh, and "provincial" and "insular".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the lawyer posters speak differently to fellow attorneys and judges than they do to the jury?

For the love of God will someone -- erudite or not -- please tell everone that a lawyer is not the same as an attorney. Anyone can be an attorney. That means you are acting on behalf of someone else at their direction. For example, if you have a power of attorney from your DH to handle the sale of a home, you are his attorney-in fact. Only a lawyer who is licensed as a lawyer can be a lawyer. I think peole often use the word "attorney" instead of lawyer because it sounds more authoratative. Actually, folks, it's the other way round.

I had to get that off my chest and have of intention of highjacking this excellent thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As my grandmother used to say,

Be courteous, kind and forgiving,
Be gentle and peaceful each day,
Be warm and human and grateful,
And have a good thing to say.

Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike,
Be witty and happy and wise,
Be honest and love all your neighbors,
Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant.

Be pompous, obese, and eat cactus,
Be dull, and boring, and omnipresent,
Criticize things you don't know about,
Be oblong and have your knees removed.

Be tasteless, rude, and offensive,
Live in a swamp and be three dimensional,
Put a live chicken in your underwear,
Get all excited and go to a yawning festival.

WTF?? This was hilariously weird.

[Anonymous]

Like other posters, I've always loved reading and words, and have accumulated a naturally big vocabulary. It has nothing to do with trying to impress people. Even in the foreign language I speak semi-fluently, I'll often find that I have a bigger vocabulary than my much more fluent friends, who overall speak the language better (better accent, better grammar, etc).

It's not a conscious thing, and if anything, I feel awkward about it. I do have to restrain myself in writing at work (legal/policy analysis)-- it's fine to have a big word or two in there, but it's easy to overdo it. Yes, even in legal writing. There's this judge on I think the First Circuit who makes it a point to cram as many obscure words as possible into his opinions, and they are just painful to read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes these folks are from a low-income background and I think they think that big words make them sound educated. And they don't have the confidence to use simple words because they're afraid people will judge them - which they might.

Growing up in a professional upper middle class home gives you the freedom to not use big words.

Was your upbringing too privileged to read 1984? Or do you just think it's double-plus ungood for the wealthy to try to educate themselves?

[takoma]

I liked sesquipedalian so much, I made up a companion:
Sesquidextrous - Too clever by half.

Actually, a photographer named Sesquidextrous has a lot of photos online, so perhaps I should not claim that I invented it.

[Anonymous]

When people complain about complicated words I think they're simple-minded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I have sort of a niggardly vocabulary, so I'm unlikely to do that.

you have to be careful with that one.

It's a little bit ridiculous that this comment can be made in seriousness. Really? Stupid people have a right to be mad because they don't know the real meaning of a word? I get the issue. It's just sad.

[Anonymous]

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I have sort of a niggardly vocabulary, so I'm unlikely to do that.

you have to be careful with that one.

It's a little bit ridiculous that this comment can be made in seriousness. Really? Stupid people have a right to be mad because they don't know the real meaning of a word? I get the issue. It's just sad.

I can't believe it's been over a decade since this happened in DC but it was a pretty big deal at the time -- government official lost his job (but then got it back) over using the word "niggardly"!

http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/04/dc.word.flap/

[Anonymous]

I adore the words philistine, anathema, and nadir. They express concepts that you would have to use multiple other words to convey.

[takoma]

Anonymous wrote:I adore the words philistine, anathema, and nadir. They express concepts that you would have to use multiple other words to convey.

There are threads on DCUM where I find a plethora of anathema.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, I also love plethora.

And, "sufficiency"

Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?

[vimeo]http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=-mTUmczVdik&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-mTUmczVdik[/vimeo]