Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS: OP, can you write back something like "Oh, I was using 'peripatetic' in the sense of travelling, not in a negative way." No need to be clear that it's the only meaning, just leave it vague enough to assume that there may be more than one meaning.

I think that is a nice way to phrase it w/o the person feeling stupid.

OP here. Phrasing a response very much like this is what I think I will do. I didn’t give a lot of thought to using this word when I chose it and it just didn't occur to me that it would be misunderstood.

I do not want to embarrass my relative about any misunderstanding of this word, but I also don’t want her to persist in her misunderstanding of what I was saying. I also don’t want her gossiping to other relatives about how “unhappy” I was in my 20s and how I must regret the choices I made at that time.

And, yes, there’s an underlying concern here that this person is looking for negativity about my work life and other choices I made in my 20s. There is history here and I sort of wondered if the person was feigning misunderstanding of the word in order to tell me how “sorry” she is that I had such an unhappy young adulthood. It’s almost as though she is going out of her way to give a negative twist to my choices- which, in reality, have worked out very well for me and my family in the long run, but she would like to spin it in a negative way.

Anonymous wrote:PS: OP, can you write back something like "Oh, I was using 'peripatetic' in the sense of travelling, not in a negative way." No need to be clear that it's the only meaning, just leave it vague enough to assume that there may be more than one meaning.

I think that is a nice way to phrase it w/o the person feeling stupid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a writer with a graduate degree in English and a JD. I use a thesaurus for work most days. I would not have used peripatetic in an email. It sounds pretentious.

Right? But, op is so full of herself. I was in academia for a long time, and never read that word in any academic papers.

A poster on page 4 quoted two different uses of the word in the New York Times since August and said she sees it at least once a month, so it’s apparently not that unusual a word.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use a word like that in a work email.

She might not have misunderstood because she doesn’t know the word and can’t use a dictionary. She might’ve been reading quickly and saw pathetic.

She might’ve known what peripatetic means, but the context in which you used it (having to move frequently due to job requirements) sounded negative, or would be assumed to be unpleasant (most people don’t want to have to move frequently for jobs).

I think it was likely this last option.

The recipient of this email has a master’s degree from a top 20 university. I think she probably knows how to use a dictionary.

Where did she go for undergrad?

Higher SAT scores suggest a more expansive vocabulary / more reading during developmental years.

None of your business

None of it is really “our business” but OP offered up part of her friend’s educational background for context. We don’t need to know specifics, but I’m just trying to understand the full picture.

IME strong vocabularies generally come from strong academics over many years, not just a grad program. There are various exceptions of course.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use a word like that in a work email.

She might not have misunderstood because she doesn’t know the word and can’t use a dictionary. She might’ve been reading quickly and saw pathetic.

She might’ve known what peripatetic means, but the context in which you used it (having to move frequently due to job requirements) sounded negative, or would be assumed to be unpleasant (most people don’t want to have to move frequently for jobs).

I think it was likely this last option.

The recipient of this email has a master’s degree from a top 20 university. I think she probably knows how to use a dictionary.

Where did she go for undergrad?

Higher SAT scores suggest a more expansive vocabulary / more reading during developmental years.

OP here. This person went to a Big 10 type school, but is definitely intelligent and well-read. I was not using a “ten dollar” word in order to impress this person. It seemed like a natural word to use in the context in that it was a good description of my situation.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a writer with a graduate degree in English and a JD. I use a thesaurus for work most days. I would not have used peripatetic in an email. It sounds pretentious.

Right? But, op is so full of herself. I was in academia for a long time, and never read that word in any academic papers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use a word like that in a work email.

She might not have misunderstood because she doesn’t know the word and can’t use a dictionary. She might’ve been reading quickly and saw pathetic.

She might’ve known what peripatetic means, but the context in which you used it (having to move frequently due to job requirements) sounded negative, or would be assumed to be unpleasant (most people don’t want to have to move frequently for jobs).

I think it was likely this last option.

The recipient of this email has a master’s degree from a top 20 university. I think she probably knows how to use a dictionary.

Where did she go for undergrad?

Higher SAT scores suggest a more expansive vocabulary / more reading during developmental years.

None of your business

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is depressing. In my parents’ generation, people would know these words with a high school education. Now…

I disagree completely. This word was not used commonly enough to be commonly known, even then. You really think high schools in rural America, in inner cities, in small towns, etc were using/teaching this word as part of the basic education? My parents graduated from high school (no college) and would not have been familiar with this word without looking it up.

DP. Are you a historian of linguistics or education or something along those lines? Because if you're not, I don't see how you can so confidently assert what's in bold above. How do you know what was taught in rural America, inner cities and small towns in an earlier generation, or now, for that matter?

And do you see that you're subtly implying that "rural America, inner cities and small towns" are places where advanced vocabulary isn't...taught? Needed? Welcomed? Compared perhaps to urban America and suburbs? Think about that for a minute. You're stereotyping.

I was raised in a small town in the 70s in the South (gasp, where everyone is so ignorant and backward, to go with another stereotype you might be embracing) and I knew by high school what "peripatetic" meant. Teachers weren't messing around back then, no, not even in a small Southern town. Maybe check your tendency to make sweeping statements about what is and is not "commonly known."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use a word like that in a work email.

She might not have misunderstood because she doesn’t know the word and can’t use a dictionary. She might’ve been reading quickly and saw pathetic.

She might’ve known what peripatetic means, but the context in which you used it (having to move frequently due to job requirements) sounded negative, or would be assumed to be unpleasant (most people don’t want to have to move frequently for jobs).

I think it was likely this last option.

The recipient of this email has a master’s degree from a top 20 university. I think she probably knows how to use a dictionary.

Where did she go for undergrad?

Higher SAT scores suggest a more expansive vocabulary / more reading during developmental years.

Anonymous wrote:Wandering, travelling.

I don't think it's obscure, but then again I have had colleagues be puzzled by "adroit" and "aplomb." I don't know, OP. It's just not a world with a broad vocabulary anymore.

Do you think that? I sometimes do, too -- but I'd include myself, my own vocabulary is getting worse!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use a word like that in a work email.

She might not have misunderstood because she doesn’t know the word and can’t use a dictionary. She might’ve been reading quickly and saw pathetic.

She might’ve known what peripatetic means, but the context in which you used it (having to move frequently due to job requirements) sounded negative, or would be assumed to be unpleasant (most people don’t want to have to move frequently for jobs).

I think it was likely this last option.

The recipient of this email has a master’s degree from a top 20 university. I think she probably knows how to use a dictionary.

Right, I said it might not have been that she didn’t know the definition. Looks like I also need to write more clearly.

I have, and use, a wider vocabulary than is typical--to the extent that I have been mocked here occasionally for using words that are the actual words I think of when writing a sentence.

I would not use the word "peripatetic" in the context you are describing.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t use a word like that in a work email.

She might not have misunderstood because she doesn’t know the word and can’t use a dictionary. She might’ve been reading quickly and saw pathetic.

She might’ve known what peripatetic means, but the context in which you used it (having to move frequently due to job requirements) sounded negative, or would be assumed to be unpleasant (most people don’t want to have to move frequently for jobs).

I think it was likely this last option.

The recipient of this email has a master’s degree from a top 20 university. I think she probably knows how to use a dictionary.

I wouldn’t use a word like that in a work email.

She might not have misunderstood because she doesn’t know the word and can’t use a dictionary. She might’ve been reading quickly and saw pathetic.

She might’ve known what peripatetic means, but the context in which you used it (having to move frequently due to job requirements) sounded negative, or would be assumed to be unpleasant (most people don’t want to have to move frequently for jobs).

I think it was likely this last option.

Well, this is eye opening to read how many people can’t be bothered to look up a word in the dictionary.