I can't tell you how many times I've come across the word shibboleth in columns and essays. Nobody seems to use it in conversation.
Other examples of "writers only" words:
exigency
mendacity
insouciant
Do any other "fancy" word choices catch your eye when reading? There must be a million of them.
Sorry - I'm sure I've used all three of the above at some time or another. Probably makes me a pretentious git. Either that or someone who deals with very well educated people. And sometimes for fun. The eyebrows that raise when I mention obloquy, contumelious or refulgent makes their use worthwhile.
If you ask me, anyone who doesn't want to enhance their vocabulary is incorrigibly hebetudinous.
Sorry - I'm sure I've used all three of the above at some time or another. Probably makes me a pretentious git. Either that or someone who deals with very well educated people. And sometimes for fun. The eyebrows that raise when I mention obloquy, contumelious or refulgent makes their use worthwhile.
If you ask me, anyone who doesn't want to enhance their vocabulary is incorrigibly hebetudinous.
All three? But I cited four words. I think you missed shibboleth. And I doubt you've worked it into many conversations, while columnists use it all the time.
I might steal refulgent. It's good but sounds bad. [An opposite case is fulsome, which is bad but sounds good (as in "generously supplied"). So many people have mistaken fulsome for a compliment that the mistake has been formalized in dictionaries. To which I object.
Quite right - my language skills clearly outdo my reading skills.
On the other hand shibboleth is such a common word down our way that I just passed over it...
Words that are good but sound bad, or vice versa, are great fun. Enervating sounds good but is bad. Homely should be comforting but is truly passive aggressive. But my current favourite is comely - sounds a bit rude but is really a classic compliment. Use with care when you apply it to a friend's wife or girlfriend.
But my current favourite is comely - sounds a bit rude but is really a classic compliment. Use with care when you apply it to a friend's wife or girlfriend.
.....Words that are good but sound bad.....are great fun.
True.....except when they are proper words like "niggardly" and "homophone" which were used recently and correctly around here---and caused major political uproars when they were misconstrued by some of our, let's say, less-educated citizens.
