Does it make you feel superior when you use big words and?

Question

people have to consult a dictionary to figure out what the heck you're talking about? Isn't communication about sending a receiving messages that can be intrepreted?

Answer 1

When I do it (which is fairly rare), it doesn't make me feel superior, but I like knowing that my vocabulary isn't quite as horrid as I think it is.

However, a good communicator will supply context clues in order to be fully understood.

>>Isn't communication about sending a receiving messages that can be intrepreted?<<

That is also true, but have you ever noticed that people don't always fully listen to what you're saying? I have experienced that far too often in my life - people listen halfway and never seem to "get" what I said, even when I emphasize the key words.....which are the words they miss most often. It's rather irritating.

Answer 2

Communication is a complex process -- while one goal might be the passing of a message to a direct receiver, there might be other receivers (others, who would be impressed with the vocabulary) or other goals, llike making the sender feel superior, or pursuading the receiver to give a "best answer" because of the level of vocabulary. The audience is often an important deciding point in vocab choice, but the entire audience is often wider than the asker, and the goal, more complex than simply an information transfer.

Answer 3

Why dont we just throw all the big words out then??!!?
Its word abuse by a proliferation of syllables! How impolite...
Personally I aim to work with my audience. If they have a limited vocabulary, I'll still use the word I was going to intuitively and explain what I meant if I see they dont get it.
By the same token I will ask what people meant if they use a word that is new to me. I typically appreciate picking up a new word here and there. Precision is worth the effort.

Answer 4

Who said anything about being superior by using big words?. If someone is intelligent then let them be so. Let me put it this way... (it takes an *** to fill every seat in life and the intelligent chair cant be left empty with 7 people still standing up), someone will eventually notice that that seat is still avaliable and sit in it, plain and simple. Thats like asking "Does it make you feel inferior when you cant understand what people are talking about?". You are digging too deep, not everybody is "Out to get you", or make you look stupid. If you are secure with yourself and your abilities you wouldnt worry about someone being smarter, richer, prettier, more popular etc.

Answer 5

"big" words don't always have to be big at all, of course, but they do serve a very useful function in that they allow for precision of language.

for instance, if you want to know what kind of a hole you should dig for a pool--someone telling you "big" wouldn't be of much help. big to you and big to that person can be different things entirely.

much the same can be said for complimenting someone on how they are dressed (rather than just saying "you look good"), or helping someone to improve an essay they're writing.

and some big words are wonderful--personally I really like the word cathexis at the moment, but I'm a nerd that way.

Answer 6

I'll take that hit.

If I have caused you to consult a dictionary, I am your friend, not your adversary. Like it or not, you are being judged daily by your vocabulary. Rather than bash me down to size, have you considered learning just one new word a day? I promise you this will be time well-spent.

Answer 7

No the problem isn't with the people that use big words. It is with the illiterate people that can't spell and don't know what the big words mean. We are doing them a favor by enhancing their vocabulary when they look up the words.. free of charge even.

Answer 8

I don't like verbiose.Some people use a thousand complicated ones when a simple one would suffice.
Yes, I think some people think by using very elaborate words they show their cleverness. They might be adept at that but does not mean the meaning is correct and their thinking more right than anybody else's.

If only legal, bureaucracy papers and the like could be comprehensible.......:-)

Answer 9

Maybe those words sound like "big words" to you. But the reason why those words exist is because they have a MEANING and the person who is talking wants to be more accurate. One usually can understand the sentence in context...

I admit that you're supposed to adapt your vocabulary depending on who you're talking to, but isn't that condescending?

Answer 10

I feel very intelligent when I use an extremely large vocabulary that is excruciatingly difficult for anyone's tiny cerebral cortex to comprehend. I feel like I am a bit superior to others in a morbid sort of way.