I often recall that writing maxim Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do. And mostly I think that's true. But I also think it's okay to use a more "expensive" word even when a cheaper word will do because it does add a little extra something.
I suppose if you not that you're doing it to show-off, then that is bad. And if your writing is filled with expensive words, that is probably bad too.
But a large vocabulary is nothing to be ashamed of either!
BTW, I've found the most effective tool for writing with simpler language is a word limit on social media platforms. Trying to stick with the character limit on Threads forces you to write simply and clearly.
I'm all for a large vocabulary, really, and I love learning new words. I love language in all its forms, but pretentious is as pretentious does. And it's always obvious. I think...
I was labouring under the misapprehension that the opposite was the case.
Those three words at the top of the page prompted a lovely little stack Ramona. Twain and Steinbeck would concur in the strongest possible terms with your thoughts on this particular topic. 👏✍️
I forgot the word .. rather.. in the middle of that unvarnished.. the bloody phone is offering the word unvaccinated in place of unvarnished.. comment of mine. But I think we are on the same page.
The conversation reminds me of John Updike, who has been accused by more than one critic of pretentious writing. Here's a quote I once wrote down from his short story, "The Taste of Metal." "A dark upright shape had appeared in the center of the windshield, and he tried to remove it, but the automobile proved impervious to the steering wheel and instead drew closer, as if magnetized, to a telephone pole that rigidly insisted on its position in the center of the windshield." That could be written, "He lost control and the car skidded directly toward a telephone pole." But which one most vividly captures the disorientation and terror of heading toward disaster without the ability to do anything?
I wouldn't call that 'pretentious', I'd call it 'luxurious'. There's humor in it, which, for me at least, drops it away from the 'pretentious' scale. 😏
I go with James: Grant every author their option. Does it work or not? It does. The shorter version is totally colorless and bland. I could have called it etiolated, but resisted. :-)
As there are no exact synonyms in English, I think using words that perfectly capture what you wish to convey is absolutely fine, even if readers so have to look it up.
A good read and a good laugh Ramona! I am writer who has always had a thesaurus sitting on her desk. Not so much because I am looking for pretentious words, but always because I am looking to switch up the repeated use of words, or looking for a world that rhymes or alliterates, perhaps.
I’ve gotta go with hifalutin and toploftiness as the winners in the great snob descriptors! Thanks for all these new words Ramona, it’s always enlightening hanging out here!
My dad used to say that someone who was pretentious was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Now, I’m thinking he should have used the word pig instead of sow. 🤪
There is a fine line—or, at least, a line—between using a word that is appropriate and using a word that is unnecessarily… well, pretentious. While I would never say “eschew obfuscation,” I will use words that make no apology for their existence in my vocabulary.
Recently one of my novels was reviewed by someone who stumbled over the word “antithetical.” In the text, the speaker was a highly-educated and very intelligent young man. He was not being pretentious. He was being himself.
While I agree with you in principle, if toploftiness (wonderful word, by the way; I might use it in my current novel) is not my intention, should I dumb down my writing to ensure the comfort of those whose vocabularies are more standard than learned? I think not. <wink>
Nov 27, 2023·edited Nov 27, 2023Liked by Ramona Grigg
I don't think we can guard against readers who have a limited vocabulary, like the one who complained. And antithetical is a pretty common word in my world and in general, not like, say, sesquipedalian. I grew up in a multilingual household and was an English major before launching my writing career.
Agree (love the reference to condescension). It was more or less rhetorical, though I suspect you knew that. And yes, please, do a piece on condescending!
I have seen genre condescension in force from different angles: literary fiction writers dismissing crime novels as "just entertainment" and crime novel fans dismissing literary fiction as "nothing happens to nobody interesting." I publish across many genres and respect them all, including genres I don't write in. Yet. :-)
I use dictionaries all the time not just because English isn't my native language - I use the Greek ones more often - I just can't resist them.
John Banville said in a Guardian interview last year: "The English language is beautiful. It’s immensely rich and untidy with so many influences from other cultures, and I glory in it. People say to me that they have to go to the dictionary. Is that a great trouble? The dictionary is one of the most precious things you have in your house. You should be thanking me for the excuse to go to it. I say to them: “I bet when you went to look up whatever word, you came across four or five new ones. So you gained! I did you a favour!”
There are some synonyms from the list I could use but I wouldn't call him pretentious.
I think Irish writers like Banville—and many others, like James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, Sebastian Barry, to name a few—are especially adept at using language for purposes beyond the imparting of information. It can add color and sound and other elements that aren't strictly necessary but enrich and deepen the reading experience. I have to include one Banville quote from his novel, The Sea. "The past beats inside me like a second heart." That, in my opinion, says and does more than paragraphs of expository prose about someone's feelings about their past.
Don’t be presumptuously bombastic.
Yup.
👏😂
😆
Bombastic is different than pretentious and it's not pretentious at all.
Do not go irenically into that good night.
Busted!
Not at all. And anyone with the humor and the chops to create a great post from poking fun at themselves is tops in my book!
This could be a fun game. A bizarro Mad Libs to see just how badly one can spoil a line of poetry with a single poor word choice.
I don't want to brag or anything but I could probably do that...
Is ironically better? LOL
Maybe in this case both would apply...
And then there's the opposite of "irately"
Please someone, make me stop
LOL. Why stop? Aren't we all about words? I meant for this to be fun!
iRately sounds like a new review website.
well, lah-dee-dah!
Coming from you, it sounds good!
I often recall that writing maxim Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do. And mostly I think that's true. But I also think it's okay to use a more "expensive" word even when a cheaper word will do because it does add a little extra something.
I suppose if you not that you're doing it to show-off, then that is bad. And if your writing is filled with expensive words, that is probably bad too.
But a large vocabulary is nothing to be ashamed of either!
BTW, I've found the most effective tool for writing with simpler language is a word limit on social media platforms. Trying to stick with the character limit on Threads forces you to write simply and clearly.
I'm all for a large vocabulary, really, and I love learning new words. I love language in all its forms, but pretentious is as pretentious does. And it's always obvious. I think...
Well, that's incontrovertibly and ostentatioulsy persnickety of you! LOL LOL LOL
I prefer 'sweetly persnickety' if you don't mind. 😏💕
😂😂😂
Lol I like the term "expensive" words 😁 I don't know why but it makes me think of Bridgerton type folks speaking.
Love that term! But 'expensive' wouldn't always be 'pretentious'. Sometimes it might just be perfect...
Better blah blah blah, than la-dee- dah then?!
I was labouring under the misapprehension that the opposite was the case.
Those three words at the top of the page prompted a lovely little stack Ramona. Twain and Steinbeck would concur in the strongest possible terms with your thoughts on this particular topic. 👏✍️
Blah blah blah or la-dee-dah...
Do I have to make a choice? 🙄
I’ll take some unvarnished raw blah than some word salad dah any day of the week.
I think you've just created a fine meme!
I forgot the word .. rather.. in the middle of that unvarnished.. the bloody phone is offering the word unvaccinated in place of unvarnished.. comment of mine. But I think we are on the same page.
👍😊
😂
The conversation reminds me of John Updike, who has been accused by more than one critic of pretentious writing. Here's a quote I once wrote down from his short story, "The Taste of Metal." "A dark upright shape had appeared in the center of the windshield, and he tried to remove it, but the automobile proved impervious to the steering wheel and instead drew closer, as if magnetized, to a telephone pole that rigidly insisted on its position in the center of the windshield." That could be written, "He lost control and the car skidded directly toward a telephone pole." But which one most vividly captures the disorientation and terror of heading toward disaster without the ability to do anything?
Excuse my attempt at a bit of humour. I’m unusually happy tonight. Playing with toddlers for a few hours in a tickle fight can do that to you.
I wouldn't call that 'pretentious', I'd call it 'luxurious'. There's humor in it, which, for me at least, drops it away from the 'pretentious' scale. 😏
Luxurious. That's an apt description.
To me, it's detailed and evocative. Also funny.
I go with James: Grant every author their option. Does it work or not? It does. The shorter version is totally colorless and bland. I could have called it etiolated, but resisted. :-)
As there are no exact synonyms in English, I think using words that perfectly capture what you wish to convey is absolutely fine, even if readers so have to look it up.
Totally agree.
He must have been doing 2 miles an hour to take all that in!😆 I’ve been in a couple of car crashes and everything is just a quick, uncomfortable blur!
Karl Straub-- proudly la-dee-dah since 1966.
Oh yeah? How so?
Mostly through the use of big words like Brobdingnagian and serendipitous.
Okay, you win.
Well, it’s not a contest. Or, rather, it’s not an opportunity to demonstrate the efficacy of my disputatiousness.
Hemingway would hate you, you know.
Probably so. I saw a Hemingway museum exhibit once, with a framed piece of paper he’d typed on, and then a ton of it was aggressively crossed out.
A good read and a good laugh Ramona! I am writer who has always had a thesaurus sitting on her desk. Not so much because I am looking for pretentious words, but always because I am looking to switch up the repeated use of words, or looking for a world that rhymes or alliterates, perhaps.
As I said, I love language. I love words. This was just fun, with one thing leading to another, until they all seemed to mesh.
But I do know 'pretentious' when I see it! 😏
I’ve gotta go with hifalutin and toploftiness as the winners in the great snob descriptors! Thanks for all these new words Ramona, it’s always enlightening hanging out here!
I'd never heard 'toploftiness' before and it's now one of my favorites! A great word.
I admit, sometimes I purposely refer to thesaurus.com to find "more expensive" words than I can come up with on my own.
Then there are the times when the perfect word doesn't exist so I make up my own.
Backitive is one of my fave words to throw around once in a while. Context: "She had the backitive to prove it."
I often use 'thesaurus' or Google to make sure a word fits, and now I can look up 'pretentious' to make sure it's not. 😉
My dad used to say that someone who was pretentious was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Now, I’m thinking he should have used the word pig instead of sow. 🤪
Or 'boar'. 😉
There is a fine line—or, at least, a line—between using a word that is appropriate and using a word that is unnecessarily… well, pretentious. While I would never say “eschew obfuscation,” I will use words that make no apology for their existence in my vocabulary.
Recently one of my novels was reviewed by someone who stumbled over the word “antithetical.” In the text, the speaker was a highly-educated and very intelligent young man. He was not being pretentious. He was being himself.
While I agree with you in principle, if toploftiness (wonderful word, by the way; I might use it in my current novel) is not my intention, should I dumb down my writing to ensure the comfort of those whose vocabularies are more standard than learned? I think not. <wink>
I don't think we can guard against readers who have a limited vocabulary, like the one who complained. And antithetical is a pretty common word in my world and in general, not like, say, sesquipedalian. I grew up in a multilingual household and was an English major before launching my writing career.
Oh, never dumb it down. Then it becomes condescending and it'll show.
(Maybe I'll do a piece on 'condescending'. That's a thing in writing, too.)
Agree (love the reference to condescension). It was more or less rhetorical, though I suspect you knew that. And yes, please, do a piece on condescending!
I have seen genre condescension in force from different angles: literary fiction writers dismissing crime novels as "just entertainment" and crime novel fans dismissing literary fiction as "nothing happens to nobody interesting." I publish across many genres and respect them all, including genres I don't write in. Yet. :-)
I use dictionaries all the time not just because English isn't my native language - I use the Greek ones more often - I just can't resist them.
John Banville said in a Guardian interview last year: "The English language is beautiful. It’s immensely rich and untidy with so many influences from other cultures, and I glory in it. People say to me that they have to go to the dictionary. Is that a great trouble? The dictionary is one of the most precious things you have in your house. You should be thanking me for the excuse to go to it. I say to them: “I bet when you went to look up whatever word, you came across four or five new ones. So you gained! I did you a favour!”
There are some synonyms from the list I could use but I wouldn't call him pretentious.
Great quote, and I love Banville's novels.
Yeah, Banville is one of kind...
I think Irish writers like Banville—and many others, like James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, Sebastian Barry, to name a few—are especially adept at using language for purposes beyond the imparting of information. It can add color and sound and other elements that aren't strictly necessary but enrich and deepen the reading experience. I have to include one Banville quote from his novel, The Sea. "The past beats inside me like a second heart." That, in my opinion, says and does more than paragraphs of expository prose about someone's feelings about their past.
One syllable words - that's going to be quite a challenge. Is a whole post possible? I wonder...
Probably not a whole post, but I did end this piece with a couple of sentences written that way. Then I realized how hard it was. And how boring. 😏