I Hate Two Dollar Words.

jaF0

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My eyes just glaze over when I see crap like this:

Evaluation of Multiple Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization Schemes in Southeastern U.S. Cold Season Severe Weather Environments.


I prefer nickle words.
 
Evaluation of Multiple Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization Schemes in Southeastern U.S. Cold Season Severe Weather Environments.

If you understand these words they are only 50 cent words and if you don't understand them, how can you put a value on them?

This has been a sponsored sissy response.
 
They sound like words from a typical academic study. That sort of writing is specialised and exact, interesting to those in that field, but awkward for general readers.

Technical writing has always been very different from fiction or popular science. Each form of communication needs a different use of words.
 
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.

Usually true, but never use an entire paragraph of diminutive words when one carefully chosen descriptor will do.

Lavish words exist because they are useful, not to splurge on ink.
 
Usually true, but never use an entire paragraph of diminutive words when one carefully chosen descriptor will do.

Lavish words exist because they are useful, not to splurge on ink.

cheapskate.
 
cheapskate.

"Piker" would be shorter. . .even "skinflint" has less letters.

I think Laurelle might be a closeted sesquipedalian because she doesn't allow responses with less than 5 letters. I can think of plenty of times when a nice four letter word would do.
 
Evaluation of Multiple Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization Schemes in Southeastern U.S. Cold Season Severe Weather Environments.

If you understand these words they are only 50 cent words and if you don't understand them, how can you put a value on them?

This has been a sponsored sissy response.

Exactly (and well-phrased). I concede that using “fancy words” can mask a paucity of thought and not infrequently devolves into nonsense on stilts (the “social sciences” are particularly prone to that- witness the spoof papers on quantum hermeneutics and the conceptual penis). Nevertheless, English is a wonderfully nuanced and expressive language, but the OP does not choose to live in that realm.
 
My eyes just glaze over when I see crap like this:

Evaluation of Multiple Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization Schemes in Southeastern U.S. Cold Season Severe Weather Environments.

I prefer nickle words.

That's because it's a mouth full of words they say nothing at all. Bullshit is bullshit whether it's a pile in the pasture or wrapped in gold foil and sold as super duper poop.


Comshaw
 
I mean, the quote you used in the OP seems to be in a paper where you HAVE to use really precise language and say exactly what you mean in a way that can't be misinterpreted. Like precision is more important than accessibility.

Speaking like a pretentious asshole in normal conversation makes you a pretentious asshole, but we've all learned that a review board needs a level of pretentious assholery or your grant proposal is gonna get rejected at the first round.

So context is important. A pop-sci article isn't gonna read like a peer-reviewed research project, for that reason. Because layfolks are gonna read the actual paper and think, "I'm not reading this. These people sound like pretentious assholes." So they read the pop-sci and come away with a better attitude.

This is a time & place type deal.

Edit: This is really funny when you're doing translations, too. I have a buddy who works doing localization and one of the things they did when he was going to school is match you up with a public speaker and you have localize just random bullshit that they write.

So she'd come up with shit like, "Ten aquatic creatures who are required to void their bowls prior to extraction by authorities due to unnecessary aggression" because she thought that she was going to be writing for acadamia, but it was really her partner fucking with her by writing stuff like, "Top 10 deep sea animals who need to cut that creepy shit out before I call the cops".

That's not a real example, I made that up, but it was that kind of shit. It was made more difficult to localize because Japanese has that weird system of respectability where you don't really cuss you just have a completely different set of language rules when you want to be an asshole to someone that is SUPER similar to how you talk to your friends and it makes it hard to localize stuff, apparently.
 
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That's because it's a mouth full of words they say nothing at all. Bullshit is bullshit whether it's a pile in the pasture or wrapped in gold foil and sold as super duper poop.


Comshaw

Ignorance is truly bliss. I discern you never studied the natural sciences. That title is not like “quantum hermeneutics” or “The conceptual penis as a social construct”.
 
I like the 50 cent words.

Magnimous.
Serendipity.
Receptacle.
Juxtaposition.
Equivalency.
Maximization.
Subjectivity.
Lexicon.
Extemporaneously.
Irascible.
Nascent.

But then I also like fun words.

Horse-pucky.
Groovy.
Cattywampus.
Discombobulate.
Poppycock.
Kernuffle.


I kinda like being a word nerd. It suits me. :cool:
 
I like the 50 cent words.

Magnimous.
Serendipity.
Receptacle.
Juxtaposition.
Equivalency.
Maximization.
Subjectivity.
Lexicon.
Extemporaneously.
Irascible.
Nascent.

Serendipity was a fun movie.

But then I also like fun words.

Horse-pucky.
Groovy.
Cattywampus.
Discombobulate.
Poppycock.
Kernuffle.

Or as Colonel Potter used to say, "Horse hockey!" or even, "Meadow muffins!".
 
I like the 50 cent words.

Magnimous.
Serendipity.
Receptacle.
Juxtaposition.
Equivalency.
Maximization.
Subjectivity.
Lexicon.
Extemporaneously.
Irascible.
Nascent.

But then I also like fun words.

Horse-pucky.
Groovy.
Cattywampus.
Discombobulate.
Poppycock.
Kernuffle.


I kinda like being a word nerd. It suits me. :cool:

I like to throw out random grizzled prospector slang because people have accepted that I just talk like That(tm).
 
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