snobbery 101 has assembled & begins now.
let it be known, i hate pretentiousness. the sort that reeks off of one's body, evident through their body carriage & dripping from their speech. it's unnecessary & presumptuous. some would say me using big words is that way. i prefer the term expressive. my word usage is not to impress but to exercise my knowledge. words have always been my commodity, my defense, my vice & my fortitude. 'tis who i am.
at scrabble™ last weekend i racked up 284 points. it was really luck of the draw because i kicked off with a 48 pointer. my opponents are not big readers or vocab fiends. in fact, they consistently ask me to redefine what i'm saying & sometimes i just make it worse. like so:
me: but he's what i'd call lecherous.
deena: lecherous? what's that mean?
me: you know, lascivious. salacious. licentious.
deena: huh?
me: skeevy. he's skeevy.
deena: well why didn't you say that before?!
this set off a discussion amongst us about whether the use of vocabulary as a weapon is pretentious. with which i don't particularly agree. however, i am also rarely attractive to someone who cannot wittily engage me in stimulating conversation. i had to explain to one of my friends that witty is not just about being funny, it's about knowing enough about the subject of which you speak, so much so that you can employ punnery & sarcasm to poke fun at the original topic. so it takes those things to outwit - outplay - outlast.
wait, that's SURVIVOR. there really is nothing new under the sun. hmph.
let it be known, i hate pretentiousness. the sort that reeks off of one's body, evident through their body carriage & dripping from their speech. it's unnecessary & presumptuous. some would say me using big words is that way. i prefer the term expressive. my word usage is not to impress but to exercise my knowledge. words have always been my commodity, my defense, my vice & my fortitude. 'tis who i am.
at scrabble™ last weekend i racked up 284 points. it was really luck of the draw because i kicked off with a 48 pointer. my opponents are not big readers or vocab fiends. in fact, they consistently ask me to redefine what i'm saying & sometimes i just make it worse. like so:
me: but he's what i'd call lecherous.
deena: lecherous? what's that mean?
me: you know, lascivious. salacious. licentious.
deena: huh?
me: skeevy. he's skeevy.
deena: well why didn't you say that before?!
this set off a discussion amongst us about whether the use of vocabulary as a weapon is pretentious. with which i don't particularly agree. however, i am also rarely attractive to someone who cannot wittily engage me in stimulating conversation. i had to explain to one of my friends that witty is not just about being funny, it's about knowing enough about the subject of which you speak, so much so that you can employ punnery & sarcasm to poke fun at the original topic. so it takes those things to outwit - outplay - outlast.
wait, that's SURVIVOR. there really is nothing new under the sun. hmph.
This entry was posted
on 05 November 2004 at 11/05/2004 11:30:00 AM.
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I used to play this game with myself where I'd try to think of really obscure words, or $1 words as they're known in some circles. They creeped into my vocab and now I drop them in convos and get accused of being pretentious. When I'm up to it I take the time to explain, "no I'm not a snob, I'm just a dork who reads the dictionary."
But I still suck at Scrabble. /shrugs
i like five-syllable words.
they're like five-star hotels, the best of the best.
keep reading webster, jen. DO IT!
heh, i typed 184! it was a 284. one of my best scores yet. no wonder that looked funny. hynie is still wordy, but an endearing sort of wordy.
jason, my dear, i would kick your buttocks at online scrabble™ easily. especially since you can't even spell strategy!
"oh", she says, feeling stupid.
i'll still kick your arse sometime.
you know, for fun.
you can play the winner.
that'll be me.
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