Dang did not know this would hit this many people.
English is a second language for my wife, when she uses an unusual word or idiom I’m genuinely impressed, and tell her so.
I’m very proud of her <3
I’ve been complimented on my word choices before, and I’ve complimented others as well. But it doesn’t come up often. Even when an interesting word is used, it’s not always the right time or place to explicitly compliment the speaker on it.
I would say truly good word usage should go unnoticed. If the fact that you’re using a lot of big words sticks out, that means you’re using too many.
No one compliments you on your big words because no one likes you.
Also all the intentional malapropisms and misspellings.
I don’t really care for compliments tbh but to each their own. But it has become so rare now a days with the dumbing down of society people need a reminder once in a while you notice their intellect.
the use of uncommon words is not a sign of intelligence, it just means you know more words
kind of like Malcom X reading the dictionary in prison?
he definitely did know more words if that’s all he did in prison lol
Doc Savage’s pulp adventures inspired Superman, Indiana Jones, and Batman. One of his assistants was Johnny, who loved using polysyllables. “I’ll be superamalgamated!” was his favorite exclamation.
Cartoon legend Jack Kirby created The Newsboy Legion. One of the members was ‘Big Words,’ who tried to live up to his name.
Fats Waller was a singer/song writer. In his comic, “You’re Feets Too Big” he explained that ‘your pedal extremities are too obnoxious.’
These days, any scientific explanation in fiction is apt to be followed by “slower and in English.”
Because 9 times out of 10, using big words doesn’t make you sound smart; it makes you sound pretentious.
They’re often used incorrectly as direct synonyms too, with no nuance as to the subtle differences between them
It absolutely does. Still this act itself is a presumption based on thinking it being so, but it could simply be that that person just has a different vocabulary and word usage.
Yes I am no fun at parties and humans are so complicated it sucks.
Education is frowned upon - has been since the 80s. It used to be that intelligent, educated people drew respect. Now the school heroes are the football players, and the math-heads and other nerds either pretend to be dumb to avoid trouble, or they get trouble.
And that’s why you have Donald Trump as president, who has the vocabulary of a child: he speaks the language of the ignoramus class.
Because education has been used as a class discriminator since forever.
You want people to stop preferring football over books? Then make schools fair and equal, instead of favouring dominant classes and money.
The reason Trump got elected is because he used fascism as a tool (the same kind that you’re using actually, “make America great again” doesn’t convince people who think everything is perfect), not because of education. And it’s not like education prevents propaganda from working (it often helps it actually) so this is just bullshit.
If you want people to be smart, first stop this moronic class discrimination.
It’s 2026, you have Google. There are free apps that teach another language. You can watch a youtube video series that explains accurate molecular biology. The sum of human knowledge is at your fingertips.
When I was living at a homeless shelter, they had a piano. So I taught Myself to play it using the internet on My phone. What’s your excuse for being uneducated?
I complimented my doctor the other day for an interesting word choice.
He blushed.
Cool dude too
In case anyone was wondering, that interesting word choice was “rectal laceration”.
My friends and I do this all the time. Someone used “deliquesce” properly the other day and we all nearly lost it!
Maybe your friends are shit?
Not to be a smart ass or something but if you and your friends talk like that then they deserve to be your friends. Hell just not your friends everyone’s friends.
They do!
But it’s rare for multiple reasons.
First, both the listener and the speaker have to know the word, because otherwise there’s no reason to compliment it
Second, the listener (or reader, but I’m too lazy to type both every damn time) has to care about word usage, and it’s kinda niche.
Third, there’s a significant degree of anti-intellectual belief out in the world, so that segment is going to have the opposite response, and they’re prone to being obnoxious about it.
Fourth, giving compliments is not something everyone is good at, so there’s a segment that might appreciate it, but not know how to express it.
Fifth, a corollary to the fourth, it can feel awkward to give compliments, so it gets shoved avoided, which is partly due to sixth:
Sixth, as a culture, complimenting someone is a complicated social action. There’s all kinds of little unspoken rules around it, and that makes a lot of people just nope out entirely.
But if you hang around people that enjoy word play and vocabulary, you’ll see a lot more compliments :)
People are more likely to get compliments on proper word play than simply being able to use a thesaurus and dictionary.
There’s nothing wrong with using “ecclesiastical” when it’s the right word. The problem starts when every sentence arrives dressed for high mass.
;)
I just meant out of the blue in a conversation. Like I would say, “good word usage” on said word than give my continuation of the conversation.
Because using a big word alone isn’t good word usage.
But you didn’t compliment my clever wordplay, so poop on you!
No offense mate I kind of treat it like a parlor trick. But on the net. I do not want to catch a shit storm because apparently I am popular or infamous.
No one knows who you are in life or on the internet. No one is impressed by your memorized words.
There is no reason to compliment people on word usage. The point is to communicate effectively.
True. I knew a guy who would use bigly words and would end up confusing people. But then i learnt a few bigly words at his expense that i use … in moderation if I may add
Hey, great use of the word “How”. You really nailed it!
😛
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I compliment people on using “SAT” words when it is appropriate. I think its pretty easy to tell when someone is puffing themselves up by using big words, versus when someone is actually using an exact word to provide better insight into a discussion.
Mind you I do hang out with a lot of over educated/well read people. I also just compliment people more often than the average person (read i compliment people a LOT and much of it is random people). So that might just be a me thing.
I think people do sometimes. More so in writing, than in conversation. But, it’s too meta. If you’re just trying to have a conversation and someone interrupts you to say, “Hey, great use of that word!”, that’s probably not what you were trying to convey and is distracting. I suggest saving that for word games.
One thing you could do is to ask what a word means. Most people are happy to explain that, and would take it as a compliment of sorts, without getting miffed.
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