'communicae' ?

Soldato
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http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/about-us.html

I mostly use flowery words to avoid repetition these days.

I used to think using words like quixotic and obsequious made me sound clever. In reality it just makes you come across as a bit of a knobber and looks like you're trying to get one over on people who don't understand.

Edit: Necro - seeing Morgoth's sig made me do a double-take!
 
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I used to think using words like quixotic and obsequious made me sound clever. In reality it just makes you come across as a bit of a knobber and looks like you're trying to get one over on people who don't understand.

We'll all end up using one syllable words and grunting if that continues. Just because some people don't understand a perfectly useful word doesn't mean we should stop using it.


Except the word communicae. Stop using that immediately.
 
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I used to think using words like quixotic and obsequious made me sound clever. In reality it just makes you come across as a bit of a knobber and looks like you're trying to get one over on people who don't understand.
In truth, most people pick up this **** just from reading a lot and looking up any words they don't immediately understand. That's kinda how schooling has worked for centuries, and it's even easier now with e-readers that have the look-up feature.

I've known loads'a people wot talk like wot you sound wiv that line, there.... and yet, despite being avid readers of The Sun, they too will not only exhibit a considerably more comprehensive and correctly applied vocabulary than their social status would ever imply, but are themselves exemplary of the reasons why we should strive toward the lofty standards rather than dragging everyone down to ridiculously simplistic levels, merely to avoid the questionable fashion of 'not looking like a knobber'...

Indeed, what makes one a knobber is highly subjective and really only applies when one actually is trying to get one over. This is usually evident when said knobber themselves does not fully understand the fancy words they're trying to use. I've sen a right posh upper class toff taking all high-falutin' and fancy, to a workin' class groundskeeper wot could barely string a sentence together... but the latter chap still fully understood every word, while the former ennunciated his exposition with absolutely no malice, despite the verbosity of his florid prose.

So yeah, the only real 'knobbers' are the ones thinking their lack of fancy words is somehow a thing in which to take pride... I'd not be surprised to learn that they think it's only the wankey fancy folk who can wipe their own arses!
 
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In truth, most people pick up this **** just from reading a lot and looking up any words they don't immediately understand. That's kinda how schooling has worked for centuries, and it's even easier now with e-readers that have the look-up feature.

I've known loads'a people wot talk like wot you sound wiv that line, there.... and yet, despite being avid readers of The Sun, they too will not only exhibit a considerably more comprehensive and correctly applied vocabulary than their social status would ever imply, but are themselves exemplary of the reasons why we should strive toward the lofty standards rather than dragging everyone down to ridiculously simplistic levels, merely to avoid the questionable fashion of 'not looking like a knobber'...

Indeed, what makes one a knobber is highly subjective and really only applies when one actually is trying to get one over. This is usually evident when said knobber themselves does not fully understand the fancy words they're trying to use. I've sen a right posh upper class toff taking all high-falutin' and fancy, to a workin' class groundskeeper wot could barely string a sentence together... but the latter chap still fully understood every word, while the former ennunciated his exposition with absolutely no malice, despite the verbosity of his florid prose.

So yeah, the only real 'knobbers' are the ones thinking their lack of fancy words is somehow a thing in which to take pride... I'd not be surprised to learn that they think it's only the wankey fancy folk who can wipe their own arses!

Maybe we should leave this for another ten years...
 
Soldato
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Maybe we should leave this for another ten years...
I be grokkin' da English will be, like, soooo diff'rent bai den, man bruv, da' we wun be recog'nizin' it enuff to like make sense of it anyway... that, or it becomes a completelely unintelligible mishmash of txtspk and Twitterbookagramisms.
Depends what ***** the various dictionary authorities decide to add in the meantime, really.
 
Soldato
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So yeah, the only real 'knobbers' are the ones thinking their lack of fancy words is somehow a thing in which to take pride... I'd not be surprised to learn that they think it's only the wankey fancy folk who can wipe their own arses!
I think it's all situational and depends on context, really - I agree that a decent vocabulary is something everyone should have and I'm not endorsing the cave-man speak we see these days.

However, you wouldn't walk in to your average pub, strike up a conversation and start spewing esoteric words at the locals. Poetry and literature in general are a different kettle of fish.

You only have to look in SC to see people shoe-horning Latin terms in wherever they can to make themselves look like intellectuals. To me, that looks like a "knobber". That's just my opinion, though. :D
 
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However, you wouldn't walk in to your average pub, strike up a conversation and start spewing esoteric words at the locals.
You'd be surprised how often I hear poetic speech in a common accent in such pubs.
I do mean proper pubs though, rather than high street bar type establishments. Wetherspoons doesn't count!

You only have to look in SC to see people shoe-horning Latin terms in wherever they can to make themselves look like intellectuals.
Well yeah, as you say, it's the context. Uncommon foreign terminology, either slotted in ad hoc during written discourse, or dropped with deliberate overpronunciation during spoken conversation, is a classic hall mark of ad knobberiae.
We do have a wide variety of foreign words that have become de facto English, along with certain phrases, but outside of that it's just campanis finisiae... or, to us common folk, sheer bellendery.
 
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You'd be surprised how often I hear poetic speech in a common accent in such pubs.
I do mean proper pubs though, rather than high street bar type establishments. Wetherspoons doesn't count!


Well yeah, as you say, it's the context. Uncommon foreign terminology, either slotted in ad hoc during written discourse, or dropped with deliberate overpronunciation during spoken conversation, is a classic hall mark of ad knobberiae.
We do have a wide variety of foreign words that have become de facto English, along with certain phrases, but outside of that it's just campanis finisiae... or, to us common folk, sheer bellendery.

I once received an email which asked colleagues to avoid "an outbreak of adhockery". We all doused our bits in domestos immediately, just in case.

Edit: because of annoying autocorrects...
 
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I once received an email which asked colleagues to avoid "an outbreak of adhockery".
What's wrong with that?
I would consider such words perfectly acceptable when used to merely add colour to an otherwise dull corporate missive.
It's like putting on an accent for humourous effect... even if the only one you can manage is Arnie. In fact, go read that email again, but as Conan the Barbarian!! :D
 
Soldato
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What's wrong with that?
I would consider such words perfectly acceptable when used to merely add colour to an otherwise dull corporate missive.
It's like putting on an accent for humourous effect... even if the only one you can manage is Arnie. In fact, go read that email again, but as Conan the Barbarian!! :D

I just found the word "adhockery" funny.

One senior colleague used to litter his emails with Latin- that was very annoying.
 
Soldato
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Well yeah, as you say, it's the context. Uncommon foreign terminology, either slotted in ad hoc during written discourse, or dropped with deliberate overpronunciation during spoken conversation, is a classic hall mark of ad knobberiae.

Hah, I tip my hat to you sir, that made me chuckle. :D
 
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