That I don't have a problem with myself since there are words that are big but more accurately describe something to another person with reasonable cognitive abilities. Example might be planned obsolescence when you have to talk about the particular lifespan of an item. Instead of going into some large description to explain an item's particular longevity you can just say planned obsolescence within X time frame.

Only thing that irks me is when a person uses big words to talk down to others and make them feel inferior.

*Crap video I know* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QguWdSsI8S8sums up my opinion about idiots and big words. They hear it, think it is important, and use it as much as possible to make themselves seem intelligent as possible.

Forget the name of the forum goer that has it in their signature, and the exact quote, but I think it goes, "Light travels faster than sound, this is why people seem bright before they open their mouth."

Desoxymethyltestosterone

I usually use big words when during writing exams or essays, but time to time I use big words to remind myself of the vocab knowledge that I have.

uhm....

Yes, done often enough, that would cause a whole lot of folks to become rather apoplectic.

If I knew any big words I'd sure use them. What's the sense of learning a word and never using it. But doing so wouldn't make me feel any smarter it's just make me know another word.

Colloquial is fine


I think King's point - and it's a good one - is that you should never use a word if you are unsure of its meaning, because then you might use it the wrong way and end up looking like an idiot. This can happen if the grammar is off, or if the word doesn't quite mean what you think it does. Therefore, given a choice between two words of which one you use regularly, pick that one. If the word "colloquial" had you running to the dictionary, write "less formal" instead.

You'll forgive me if I choose to ignore Stephen King's advice on writing. He is a very successful author but he is such an opponent of "pretentious writing" that he makes it nearly a pretension of his own.

Aren't lawyers those people who have taken up the profession of making up words and using dead languages (latin) so that anyone who isn't a lawyer can not understand law? Kind of defeats the purpose if the people who are supposed to be governed by the law have to hire someone to know what the heck the law is.

That is definitely one thing I find annoying since it's like their own secret language between one another. Instead of just saying person A promises not to annoy person B it goes into some ridiculousness of the first party hereby agrees not to engage in harrassing attacks upon the second party under penalty of law, etc... .

Credit Card statements and Home Loans can be worded in extreme manners confusing even seasoned professionals. That's why I went to my local bank for a Credit Card and told the lady point blank I wanted 5 particulars with the card and negotiated terms for it. Was a PITA to go through the credit officer to OK the card but I managed to get it. All the fuss for a card with a small 3K limitation, but atleast it has no annual fees with little to no interest rates.

If people can't poop properly because I use big words..


..then they ought to see a proctologist(*)




(*)ass doctor.

Are those them ones that use bum tubes?

brilliant.

You know for colonic irrigation and that.

This is an insightful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM on the matter.

Edit
I don't usually get angry about spelling and grammar, unless its a particularly bad butchering I can't understand or have to take more than a minute deciphering. It may as well be some some dialect, we'll call this garble. These garbles type in a way most can't comprehend, so I naturally have to force them back into proper English. Not that I'm particularly good at it. Even I have some standards.

I like to say pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

It's a disease that involves ash in the lungs.

I read a lot. It is more a subconscious thing for me. I do not mean to confuse people...sometimes. So I have to constantly reword what I say or how I am about to say something. It inexorably ends up with me jarbling something incoherent to others. I never use unneccesary big words though. Just whatver seems to fit the sentence the mos and sounds the best to me. I also like to free flow with my friends and well, big words sound cool when used right in those situations. 'The uncompromising ideal that is ort unwanted salvation, will just lead to a morally destitute modern nation.' sounds better than 'spoiled brats with things they dont need, will bring our nation down to its knees'. Though that still sounds kewl to me.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SesquipedalianLoquaciousness.

From what I've seen, people who have real mastery of the language tend not to use big words a lot, but combine somewhat common words in elegant and novel ways.

Good as a general rule, but saying there are no exceptions is going a little far. I've been reading a lot of Michael Chabon, for example, and he uses a lot of thesaurus-y words, but it fits his lush writing style and he's such a good writer that it never feels gratuitous or forced.

Granted, King's writing in the context of a guide for new writers, but in my experience there's no right way to write. Different methods work differently for everybody, pretending otherwise is kind of kind of pretentious in itself.

I don't think this is necessarily the case. It's just that law is such a huge sprawling field that sometimes you really do need to be precise. I see as many whimsical phrases like 'eggshell skull rule' as the archaic words like 'tortfeasor', possibly more.

---isn't that what proctologists use to treat a potyhumer?

Aren't we just a bit off topic? Colonic is hardly a big word.

The topic pretty much should have been obscure/complex words given the responses. Most of the words used have smaller words that mean the same thing. Scientific classification is all fine and whatnot but we really do not need to say Homo Sapien Sapien everytime we mean human do we?

'Big words' don't bother me; in fact, I enjoy when others use 'big words'... especially when I'm not familiar with them. It doesn't matter if the person sounds like they're just doing it to seem intelligent or not, because that's often obvious.

It also doesn't bother me when people don't type proper sentences, paragraphs, or use correct grammar/spelling. It's their own problem if it isn't a casual environment.

What bothers me is when people use or overuse words or phrases that are what I consider to be contemporary and artsy fartsy. You know what I mean. Especially when it doesn't even make sense.

"The iPhone is markedly superior to the Android as a piece of crap, whereas the Android is orders of magnitude more nonsensical than the nonissue that is the markedly inferior Blackberry. Smartphones in general are orders of magnitude more markedly nonsensical than Notsosmartphones."

Yes, and they can be very annoying if that's the only reason they're doing it. Writers who do similar annoy me as well.

Such words have their uses, but I'm lazy and don't feel like vocalizing a "big" word when a "small" word is more efficient and more likely to be understood/facilitate communication in the first place.

If someone's going really over the top it can be annoying, but I find anti-intellectualism to be way more irritating.

People who constantly use Latin words in arguments. Heck, even if you use it one time. Especially if that person uses it and then explains what it means, or links to wikipedia. Can you get more pretentious than that?

We all know who you are and we judge you.