Requesting a reality check…

[Strange]

A friend of mine who's a successful comic book artist has a Facebook page for fans of his art, and I occasionally post there even though I'm not into comics. My perception of the fans is that they're a good bit younger than I am, and they're über current with popular culture, about which I could not possibly care less.

In a thread last night I used the word 'pleonasm' and garnered a ration of shit for it, the implication being that I was using an obscure word to impress people with my vocabulary. Since I've never considered that to be a particularly obscure term I assumed no one would stumble on it. My friend was the first to respond and he chided me for being a 'showoff', which I found a little rich since he's the one with tbe fanboy page where he is routinely showered with adulation from his sycophantic followers. I responded that I assumed the people there were educated enough to know such a word or at least be capable of looking it up. Others soon chimed in that I was putting on airs by using high fallutin terms and that I was a douche nozzle for condescending to them. All of this took me aback, since A) it's a common enough term among the people in my life and B) I truly had no intention of impressing anyone or looking down on them.

In the cold light of dawn I'm wondering whether their responses were justified and reasonable or whether, as I had felt last night, they were being overly sensitive to their misplaced perception of being condescended to by someone who considers himself their superior. On only the rarest occasions have I been accused of using what others considered pompous language, since the people I hang out with are smart, literate, and not intimidated by things things they might not have previously encountered.

I know it's difficult to judge without having read the thread, but what do you all think?

[mlcor]

I pride myself on having a pretty good vocabulary, words being critical to my occupation, but I had to look that one up.

Personally, I relish the idea of learning a word I've not previously heard of. BTW, it's a good word. I think if people react that way, they are in fact overreacting. I use words all the time that get blank stares from people, but they know I'm not trying to impress, I'm just finding the right word.

I'm pretty appalled at the lack of vocabulary in the younger generations, and I blame it firmly on social media. OTOH, maybe it's just the curmudgeon in me coming through.

[FuzzyB]

I think it is a sad state of affairs when people readily fight for their ignorance than to take the drastic step of actually doing something to lessen that ignorance. People should not have to apologize for their intelligence.

(Full disclosure: I have no idea what that word means and I’m fairly confident I have never seen it before, but I will be looking it up and learning something new today.)

[Henry Krinkle]

I'm with mlcor and especially Fuzzy on this one. One should always view the opportunity to learn something new as a good thing. In the instance of this word, I sometimes write things in a certain way to mildly irritate people and if one of them ever cottons on and accuses me of pleonasm, they will win.

As an addenda to the whole concept of learning, my parents came over from the Netherlands in 1952, long before they taught English in schools. He left school in when war broke out, which would have made him 11 or 12. He taught himself English by doing crossword puzzles. No, I don't know how that works, but he ended up with the largest English vocabulary of almost anyone I have ever met.

[OhDark30]

I had to look it up :-)

I used to love the It Pays to Enrich Your Wordpower feature in Readers Digest, and try to use at least one less common word a day, to do my bit for linguistic variety

I’m with all of you: why would someone react that way? It’s always good to learn something new

[rodia77]

here he is routinely showered with adulation from his sycophantic followers.

There, you did it again! 'Kiss-a**e' would do for the latter.
And you're pretentiously using Book Antiqua, too.

From what you're saying I gather it was a personal reaction and as such not really worth analysing. If you'd used 'f**king wordiness' instead of 'pleonasm', can you guarantee that you wouldn't have been attacked for 'trying too hard to be cool'?

[Seriously]

since the people I hang out with are smart, literate, and not intimidated by things things they might not have previously encountered.

Is this a (deliberate?) pleonasm?

[litlmn]

I consider myself fairly ejumicated but I had no idea what that meant either. That being said I also wouldn't care if you used it.

[uchinanchu]

I thought that kind of thing/reaction only happened on (some) watch fora, guess I learned a bunch of things from you/your post, arigato

[Strange]

mlcor says: Personally, I relish the idea of learning a word I've not previously heard of.

^^ This. When someone uses a word I don't know I don't accuse them of showing off or condescending to me. I look it up in the goddamn dictionary and learn something new. This I consider to be a good thing.

mlcor again: I'm pretty appalled at the lack of vocabulary in the younger generations

To the ninety-ninth degree. The percentage of them who can even construct grammatically correct sentences is appallingly low, let alone having anything more than an eighth grade vocabulary. The thing that keeps me awake at night is the thought that in a few more years they'll be the ones running the show.

FuzzyB says: I think it is a sad state of affairs when people readily fight for their ignorance than to take the drastic step of actually doing something to lessen that ignorance. People should not have to apologize for their intelligence.

Absolutely. I don't begrudge anyone their ignorance, but when they wear it as a badge of honor I reach for the barf bags. All one needs to overcome one's ignorance is the will to do so. And no, I will not ever apologize for my knowledge, my education, or my native abilities.

Henry Krinkle says: One should always view the opportunity to learn something new as a good thing.

Yes! Knowledge is good, and more of it is better than less. That's such an elemental concept I cannot fathom why anyone would feel otherwise.

Henry again: He taught himself English by doing crossword puzzles.

I have been hopelessly addicted to crossword puzzles since September of 1987. I don't use the term 'addicted' lightly either. And yes, doing them has expanded my vocabulary considerably, in addition to filling my head with all manner of arcane trivia with which to impress girls at cocktail parties.

Seriously asks: Is this a (deliberate?) pleonasm?

I think I'd refer to it as an inappropriate repetition, or maybe just a boneheaded cockup. And no, it was definitely not intentional.

What's kind of bizarre about this whole thing is that my friend's father (whom he idolized) was a professor of English and had a vast vocabulary. My friend never seemed to mind when his da used those kind of words.