{"id":107,"date":"2006-08-21T21:32:41","date_gmt":"2006-08-22T02:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weeklyrob.dreamhosters.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2006-08-21T21:32:41","modified_gmt":"2006-08-22T02:32:41","slug":"word-show-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Word Show-Offs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading a review of a book recently (about <\/span>vegetarians<\/a>) in which the reviewer called Britain, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the land of the rosbifs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

As the French are called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Frogs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or the Germans, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Krauts,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the English are called rosbifs (roast beefs) by the French.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember why I know this, but it occurred to me that most Americans reading the review must not know it at all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not in any American or British dictionary that I checked.<\/p>\n

To be fair, the review was in a British journal, and maybe the British all know the term. So I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame the writer for using a word that few people would know, or even be able to look up.<\/p>\n

But it reminded me of a book I recently read which quoted whole sentences in French or Latin without translating them. Which reminded me of lots of books that have done the same or similar things.<\/p>\n

Why do they do that? Who are they showing off for?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m all for using the precise word over the less precise one, even if it means that a reader might have to visit the dictionary. But if your goal is to show us that you understand French, then you should put that information in a memoir about your days in France. Which I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read, because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help your reader understand the gist of your article or book when the words you use are purposely obscure. Do you want them to understand you, or to think that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re really really smart?<\/p>\n

Now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m on the subject, choosing the precise word doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just mean the big one, or the obscure one. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no need to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153utilize\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rather than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153use.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d One isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t more precise than the other. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just in fewer people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vocabulary.<\/p>\n

This means that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less likely to be understood while not adding one bit of meaning. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bad idea. (Of course, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room to wiggle if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153use\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and want to mix up the language a little. If I write about a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vocabulary again in this post, maybe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll call it a lexicon.)<\/p>\n

A little more. Sometimes even the sole precise word should be avoided. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no easy single word that means, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to throw out the window.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to be humorously formal, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d stay away from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153defenestrate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d unless there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a character limit, or you have to rhyme with re-penetrate. And how often does that happen?<\/p>\n

I personally love the word <\/span>callipygian<\/a> (or callipygous), which I squeeze into every conversation I possibly can. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because, yes, I am showing off. (Anyway, the world seems a better place for having callipygian in it.)<\/span><\/p>\n

To wrap up: squeezing something callipygous is good, defenestration has its time and place, but foreign phrases should be translated or left out.<\/p>\n

Do you disagree? Well, you know what they say: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Potes meos suaviari clunes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reading a review of a book recently (about vegetarians) in which the reviewer called Britain, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the land of the rosbifs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As the French are called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Frogs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or the Germans, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Krauts,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the English are called rosbifs (roast beefs) by the French. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember why I know this, but it occurred to me that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-languagelit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}