Unpopular Opinion: On using âbig wordsâ
Big words, sesquipedalian - I am sure you have heard of them.Â
Them - overwhelming creatures that send you scurrying and crying towards the nearest dictionary, ultimately leaving you uninterested at the book on your occupied hand, and instead, urging you to deeply ponder upon their wordy nature. Them - more prominently termed as âhighfalutin wordsâ, at least in my case.Â
Big words, highfalutin words, pretentious language - oh, how much of them do I most sincerely hate.
Is this tendency to abuse the dictionary and thesaurus, a recent fad? It must be so, for the past few weeks I have spent  looking at personal tumblrs to follow has ended in tragedy. To give you an example, the instance I have noticed the use of âparsimoniousâ over the shorter and more common âfrugalâ, âparoxysmâ over âoutburstâ, âequanimityâ over âpoiseâ -  my pointer has made its way towards [x] within the blink of an eye.  Â
Aggravating is their potency to grate my nerves, like how the sound of fingernails scratching the chalkboard renders my ears momentarily dysfunctional. Â It makes me wonder if the writer ever notices how much of his narrative suffers from the use of such jargons. I wonder too, if he is aware, that even a simple play on syntax or punctuation can give weight to the weakest monosyllables. (See: Margaret Atwood) Â What makes it even more disconcerting, I find, is how much of the readers seem to receive this with high praise.Â
Ladies and gentlemen, surprise surprise, having an expansive vocabulary is wonderful and gives you bragging rights, but it does not, in any way, make you a good writer.Â
Perhaps I am misinformed about the purpose of writing. Does it not exist for the purpose of conveying thoughts and emotions? For avoiding misunderstandings? For putting  a point across as clear as you possibly can? If yes to all these, then why, as a writer, must you require your readers to continuously consult the dictionary for every word you use?  It is distracting. Annoying.Â
You can argue that earlier writers employed a more laborious written approach, take Dickens for example, but I am not referring to purple prose here. I am opining against the blatant misuse and abuse of âbig wordsâ that one never uses in real life - unless the said person intends to sound pompously educated, then by all means, the world welcomes all kinds of species, stupid people notwithstanding.Â
Perhaps I have no right to say this.  âYou are an Engineering student, what do you know about writing? Aesthetics? Art?â you may ask. And yes, maybe nothing. But it really bugs me, that these otherwise promising writers, bank more on exhausting the expanse of their vocabulary to salvage their poor storytelling. To quote Hemingway, whose response to Faulknerâs criticism of his writing style I dearly love. âDoes he really think big emotions come from big words?âÂ
They do not. They add a gravity, yes, but it is not all that.
I am not suggesting that one must entirely rely on common words. Good heavens, such an occurrence is what beat boxing is to music, just as how using big words is akin to belting. (Have mercy on your vocal chords.) All I am saying is, practice variety, and use words wisely.Â
Now that this has been let off my chest, I now rest my case.
P.S. I dare you to listen to a singer belting every fucking word he is singing.
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