Context is everything. Coffee ‘container’ is going to be interpreted as where one holds the beans, coffee glass make no real sense, and coffee pitcher would mean something I’d put iced coffee in. In my circles ‘coffee pot’ means the coffee maker as a whole and carafe is what the coffee drips into.
And are you being pretentious using a $27 word like receptacle when a $0.50 word like container would do just fine?
If I were asking a tablemate to pass me the wine, I’d likely refer to it as a bottle or jug if I wasn’t sure they’d understand what a carafe was. My point isn’t that glass is synonymous with carafe. It’s that there are plenty of other words I could use to get my point across without making someone ask “What?”
If I were in a store, admiring some glassware, and I came across a carafe that I liked, no one would give a good damn if the first thing out of my mouth “Oh what a lovely container/pitcher/jug”.
If I were at a table, and asked for the pitcher, jug, or whatever, no one would care. And most importantly, everyone would understand me.
And If they did care, I’d have to question their priorities in life.
Why are you pretending that this is a simple case of not knowing a particular word? This co-worker has a history of throwing around fancy-shmancy terms and referring to chefs by first name and then sighing when she has to explain herself. Come on, we all know people like this. This isn’t about Monstro’s personal knowledge or her attitude towards her areas of ignorance. This is about an office tool.
And my point is that why would I assume my vocab is so special that we don’t know most of the same words? I would assume that my co-worker would know carafe, because it;s just not that special a word. It’s not jargon, it’s not a foreign word (in the real sense), it’s not middle English. And I would hope that if they didn’t know it, they wouldn’t assume teh fault was mine for being pretentious. If I was wrong and they said “what”, I’d simply say “Sorry- the container of wine”.
This whole reverse snobbery thing bugs me. It’s why we get idiots like Palin and Joe the Plumber being treated like they have something to add.
And what would you do if you were unaware that they’d never heard of a carafe?
And yet, you seem to care a lot which word we use, as some words are apparently forbidden.
I’m not pretending anything. I have no personal knowledge of this woman. I don’t know what she’s like, and have only a limited, biased history retold by monstro (and no fault to monstro, we all have biases) to base any conclusions on, so I am disinclined to come to any conclusions about what this woman is like in general. Based on the mere fact that she uses a common word, I don’t see that getting bothered by it is a proportionate reaction. Monstro may dislike her for other reasons, which I can’t and won’t guess at, and it may be perfectly logical for her to dislike her for those other reasons, but being bothered by her word choice is disproportionate.
“Jug of wine” doesn’t sound too classy…
I used to have a friend who did stuff like this. She’d casually drop the name Anioqiyaasi in conversation, and when I’d say, “Who the what now?” she’d pause, do a dramatic double-take, and say something like, “You know, the Hopi goddess of rainbows.” She’d do it at least once every time we hung out (“Bownessie? Surely you know about it–the loch ness monster in Lake Windermere?” “Seriously, you’ve never heard of Phar Lap, the New Zealand horse murdered by mobsters in 1932?” etc.) Sometimes she’d give me a little side-glance as she dropped the name, checking to see if I knew this particular obscure reference. It was really obnoxious and is part of the reason that we’re no longer friends.
But I see a difference here. The difference is twofold: first, she was doing it on purpose, as evidenced by the sidelong glances. Second, when I admitted I was unfamiliar with something, she acted like only an idiot was unfamiliar with it.
The obscurity of the topic (or vocabulary) doesn’t enter into it. If she said, “Sorry, I’ve been geeking out on Hopi mythology lately, and those Aniokiyaasi was awesome–forgot it’s not exactly a household name,” there would’ve been no problem. Contrariwise, yesterday my father wanted to check email on my computer but couldn’t figure out what to do. “Do you want me to pull up Firefox?” I asked him, and he answered, “No, I need to get to AOL.” I covered up my stunned silence poorly, which was bad form on my part, and then apologized and pulled up aol.com in Firefox for him, which was what he needed. If I’d mocked him for his confusion, that would have been douchey, never mind my opinion that anyone using Windows ought to know the difference between a browser and a website.
Yeah, but neither do thou.
Because you should be paying attention to how frequently certain words pop up in the common vernacular. Look in the media. TV, books, movies, and overheard conversations, all of these should give you a clue.
Whenever I’ve planned parties or hung around party planners, “crudites” never has been used (my computer can’t even spell it properly). It’s always “veggie tray/platter”.
As in “I’m going to swing by the store and pick up a veggie platter on the way home for Katie’s graduation party”.
More insight: Stores rarely if ever market these products as “crudites”. But rather “veggie tray/platter”. I’ve never see a product label bearing the word “crudites” in my life. Unless stores in your part of the country operate differently, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t know that they tend to be labeled in descriptive terms.
Carafe is another example. I see the word in print and in certain social circles, it’s common enough not to be mystery. But I’m more apt to come across other words much more frequently. “Coffee pot” pops up more frequently than “carafe” in the average American sphere of communication. So does “jug” and “pitcher”. So I’ll use the latter words if I’m not certain “carafe” is part of the listener’s repertoir.
To question someone’s classiness isn’t very classy either. 
Eh, probably not, but sounding classy isn’t a high priority of mine.
Probably because no one would ever mistake me for being low class.
This is ludicrous. Oh wait, I mean “this is funny.” Ludicrous probably isn’t in the common vernacular. Oh whoops, I mean the common speech that most people use.
Being pretentious is annoying, agreed. But saying that nobody should use a less-common word when a more-common one would suffice (er, would “do”) is silly.
I’m low f-in’ bred.
If monstro’s coworker was trying to assert some kind of foodie cred, she fails. First, crudités is a weak response to the notion of tapas. Second, a vegetable connoisseur isn’t going to “get” crudités already cut and drying out in some plastic grocery tray. She’s going to make them–easy enough and way better.
She’s like somebody who hears “sandwich” and proposes gas station chicken salad wedges.
Perhaps the woman simply enjoys getting a rise out of** monstro**. It’s apparently very easy!
Oh–monstro has referred to her as “Ghetto.” How dare One of Those People know a word that monstro doesn’t!
“Dost thou,” no?
Meh, I’m just thinking of three things that aren’t classy:
I’m low f-in bred; a jug of wine; and thou.
I should be paying attention to what’s common and adjust my language appropriately? Really? Again, I’m not speaking Middle English here. I’m just using pretty normal vocab. I’m not going to start vetting what I say because someone else might not know a word I use and think I’m pretentious. If it’s not clear from conversation or context then ask- it’s what I do when I come across a word I don’t know.
How special of you to know what words are and are not known by ‘average Americans’. Can you give me a list so I don’t sound pretentious?