After reading an article about that current Fast and Furious stuff, i'm starting to wonder if people use big words just to make themselves sound smart. Kind of like those idiots that shout to get their point across, or use caps locks in online discussions to get themselves noticed.


You ever meet people offline or online that use big words, such as those above, to make themselves sound smart?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSYiT2iG08

(Transcript:
[Dr. Samuel Johnson presents his comprehensive English dictionary to the Prince Regent.]
Johnson: This book, sir, contains every word in our beloved language!
Prince George: Hmmm.
Blackadder: Every single one, sir?
Johnson: Every single word, sir!
Blackadder: Oh. Well, in that case, sir, I hope you will not object if I also offer the Doctor my most enthusiastic… contrafibularities.
Johnson: What?!
Blackadder: Contrafibularities, sir? It is a common word, down our way.
Johnson: Damn! [Dr. Johnson scribbles in his book.]
Blackadder: Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anaspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation. )

Yup. Especially those that use latin

I sometimes use big words but only if I know what the word means also if I don't know what a word means---well I look it up.

Yes, all the time. People that take their time and think about what they say (as well as say what they mean and mean what they say) come across as intelligent. People using large words, when it sounds forced, was one of the things that caused me to want to headbutt the conference room table during meetings at a previous job.

I am not cognizant as to what you are attempting to communicate toward me.

Tell them to cease their regurgitant insipience.

Hmm, I agree that world/life is like that. Dunno why,

If only just big words made you look elitist. These days, I go into chat rooms and simply using correct punctuation causes everyone participating to treat me like some snot-nosed grammar nazi. I'd like a broader vocabulary just so my creative writing isn't at the 8th grade level anymore.

It's just the zeitgeist.

My favorite big word is: id

Why is it such a bad thing for people to use "big words"?

Maybe some people just have naturally large vocabularies, or they have actually taken the time out to not sound like everyone else.

It's really annoying how people just assume that if you vocalize on a differing level of cognitive thinking than they do, then you're automatically acting like that to feel superior. Sounds more like insecurity to me. "Oh, you used words I don't understand? You obviously think you're better than me. Talk normal."

"Big words" exist for a reason. Sure, it may sound forced for some, but the only reason anyone has a problem with it is because most people feel intimidated by it.

I do it to some extent, but the words I use aren't ever like those in the OP and it's not really meant to make myself look smart (you'd know if I was talking out of my ass, big words or not). It's mostly done as a courtesy to the poor saps that'll be reading what I type. I don't sound stupid, but the way I talk doesn't exactly translate well to text, so I end up using a lot of words online that I probably wouldn't in conversation.

It depends on whether they're being used self-consciously or not. Dr Johnson - in my linked Blackadder quote - is just showing off, so he is an obnoxious jerk. Someone with a naturally large vocabulary is simply eloquent.

That said, I had a hilarious conversation at work where we spent ages trying to find a plain English phrase that would roughly equate to "empirically aligned". After about half an hour, someone piped up: "equal to". We were so used to talking in jargon that we'd forgotten how to communicate.

I think that's the key: the purpose of language is to communicate. If you're speaking in sentences that cannot be understood by the person you're speaking to, then you're failing as a speaker (or writer). I find it a lot with music reviews - when the prose is so purple that you end up with an indecipherable mass of adverbs that make gleaning the gist of the description nigh on impossible, then it's just pretentious rubbish. If you use a less-often-used but easily understood word that uniquely captures the precise meaning of exactly what you're trying to convey, then you are using language correctly.

I find I use big words and pompous sentences when typing, but not irl.

I think it's because it's harder to judge how text comes across than speech.

Just because a chap has a Brobdingnagian lexicon...

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

I is not as smert as all yous.

IS IT WORKING?



Edit: But to be serious, I sometimes use "loan words"(closer to english than finnish but still techically finnish) and feel somewhat smart. Though I do not do so I order to feel smart, it just has that effect and my head uses a strange hybrid of english and finnish, for some reason.

Edit: oh, okay, P-Stomper

Methyleendioxymethamfetamine... okay, you win

I guess that's the Finnish equivalent of English people gratuitiously using French to seem smarter.

Pretentious? Moi?

Well not like that exactly, more like when there's the english word depression, instead of using the finnish word masennus, I use depressio, which is the same thing, only a different word with the same meaning.

I thought English speakers used french to appear more romantic. Latin is the one used to appear smarter.


English has synonyms as well.

I hate that.

In a historical context, I love the language... but it just gets degraded so much on the internet by pompous little monkeys trying to sound intelligent.

But "Moi" isn't one of them, correct? (Heh, moi, a finnish word for hello as well....)

I usually just use whatever pops into my head. I haven't looked at a thesaurus since grade school. I think the only big words that I use are words that I recently read or heard, just because big words often stand out when I read things online.

I never do it to make myself feel smart though. I also get a little turned off by people that do happen to use big words as a way to sound smart (it's usually fairly obvious). Sometimes I get the impression that big words are often used for the sake of using big words, not necessarily as a way to sound smarter. That's part of the reason I don't go to the Lore forum much these days. Using big words for the sake of big words, when more casual words would suffice, is kind of a turn off.