The Quotidian Word » power http://blog.quotidianword.com Maieutic promulgation. Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:10:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 The Power of Words http://blog.quotidianword.com/the-power-of-words/ http://blog.quotidianword.com/the-power-of-words/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:10:59 +0000 epeolatrist http://blog.quotidianword.com/?p=38 From where does the craving for vocabulary expansion stem? Is it the desire to communicate more efficiently? Most likely not, since the average person will typically know enough words to communicate a typical experience. While guesses vary wildly, rough estimates put the average person’s vocabulary at around 10,000 to 30,000 words. Of course, if you can count past 30,000, you know a few more words than you think.

Is it for pure bombast and the opportunity for pedantic display of linguistic prowess? Sure, many people choose to use $100 words in conversation, but unless in the company of like-minded peers or Quotidian Word victims audiences, these enlightened folk are looked down upon and labeled as sesquipedalian cockalorums (although in much more laconic, four-letter terms). Is the layman afraid of big words or learning them? More likely he is scared of appearing intellectually inferior to the palaverous speaker and must thus make a sneering comment rather than inquire about the meaning. Some may also nod their heads and blink as if they understood the word and are hoping that it wasn’t critical to the essence of the sentence, but this, too, is fear.

Personally, if someone says a word to me that I haven’t heard, I immediately interrupt them and have them explain what it means (and then tell them about Quotidian Word, of course!). This is because I am one of those who loves learning. Asking doesn’t make you appear dumb; not asking makes you look like a fysigunkus. However, there are those who will mention a word simply so they can be asked what it means, but you’ll know who they are by the curl of smug that hangs off the edge of their lips.

What many people do not understand is that words carry a latent power, just like anything else, and their relative use and ubiquity defines their power. Also, their shade of meaning is influential in their power. For instance, everyone knows what a meteor is, but do they know what a bolide is, and what the difference between them may be? How about the difference between something hairy and something velutinous? To know these words and use them correctly empowers one as a communicator to speak descriptively and precisely.

Of course, your communicative efficiency is always determined by the vocabulary of your audience, and therein lies the rub. However, if you offer to gently inculcate them, you may find that not only are they getting smarter, but to them you become less of a, oh, what’s the word, pompous douchebag.

Why do you love new words?

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