# Help me find a word more pretentious than "précis" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 26, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376 "2010-10-26T03:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/41 "2010-10-26T17:38:09Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > By that rationale, anything you haven’t heard of is pretentious, though. Hell, to someone who doesn’t know the word, “clarity,” you could be pretentious. Why not take the opportunity when you hear something new to learn from it instead of putting the person down because they know more than you? What do you consider pretentious? ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/42 "2010-10-26T17:45:40Z")
> [@trupa](#): > > As a native French speaker, “précis” to me sounds about as pretentious as “accounting report”. Kay, but we’re Americans, and it’s sort of pointless to use an obscure foreign word when an better-known English one will do > [@](#): > > That being said, do you find “synopsis” as pretentious? I would wager it’s equivalent in terms of degree of vocabulary sophistication, though I would have no idea how to measure that. It dertainly doesn’t have that gallic “je ne sais quoi…” “Synopsis” is not equivalent to “precis” in terms of vocabulary sophistication for most Americans. > [@Rigamarole](#): > > You can’t be serious. French in particular was long considered a language of the upper-crust elite who had the time and money to pursue such frivolous endeavors as learning a foreign language in school instead of, you know, working. QFT > [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > These words you just used were derived from French: > serious > particular > considered > language > elite > pursue > foreign > purpose > available > pretension > > There are a few others that skipped French altogether and are derived straight from Latin. OMG, and the entire Indo-European language family is derived from some proto-Sanskrit language! Clearly I am being a language snob walking around speaking normal English. I should just use rudimentary grunts. That is the only form of communication that does not reek of cosmopolitan snobbery. > [@Hello\_Again](#): > > When you use a word in order to ensure that some people can’t understand you, you are being pretentious. EXACTLY! I would also add that whenever you use a word that will make you look smarter to the detriment of your audience’s understanding, you are being pretentious ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/43 "2010-10-26T18:01:18Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I thought this board was dedicated to fighting ignorance, not celebrating it. I know what précis means and I still think it’s pretentious. Can we agree that, if you’re using a word in a way it is not normally used in order to be different or appear educated or worldly or whatever the fuck, you’re being pretentious? There are circumstances where précis is perfectly appropriate, and others where using it is pretentious. It has nothing to do with knowing what the word means. However, sometimes showing off your superior knowledge (e.g. lack of ignorance) is pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/44 "2010-10-26T18:05:01Z")
Pretentious? _Moi?_ ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/45 "2010-10-26T18:10:56Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Which is the actual pronunciation. That’s like complaining about someone saying “nuclear” instead of the less pretentious “nucular.” Some people make a big deal about properly pronouncing foreign words. That’s pretty much the definition of pretentious: “attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.” > [@Some nitwit](#): > > “Oh, I’m just going to make my model tea kettle out of _ **pap-i-yay ma-CHE** _! You know, I use _ **pap-i-yay ma-CHE** _ quite a lot in my work. It’s such a wonderful material. In fact, all the best artists use _ **pap-i-yay ma-CHE** _ for their…” If you’re not French, don’t speak French, and haven’t recently been to France, shut the fuck up and just mangle the pronunciation like a normal person, you’re not fooling anyone. I know, I know, it’s the “correct” pronunciation. Listen - if you’re doing something differently from everyone else, and it’s not superior in any way except it’s technically “correct” and the normal way is not, you’re being pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/46 "2010-10-26T18:14:22Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Excuse me, I have to go out to the car-hole to get something. I too, am required to ambulate towards the trou de voiture. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/47 "2010-10-26T18:18:09Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > Some people make a big deal about properly pronouncing foreign words. That’s pretty much the definition of pretentious: What if someone pronounces it correctly without making a big deal out of it? ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/48 "2010-10-26T18:22:46Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > What if someone pronounces it correctly without making a big deal out of it? How about this: if you speak French fluently or otherwise pronounce it like that naturally, you’re okay. If you don’t speak French and have to make an effort to pronounce it correctly, you’re being pretentious. If you pronounce it naturally only because you’ve gotten used to it after years of being pretentious, you’re still pretentious. Of course, even if you fall into the first category, in certain circles simply advertising that you know how to speak French could be viewed as pretentious. If you don’t want to be seen that way, perhaps you should intentionally mispronounce it. Yes, I know, how unfair. Welcome to life. Now, don’t misinterpret me. I don’t think there’s much wrong with being pretentious. I often enjoy being pretentious when I’m around a bunch of slack-jawed yokels. But that doesn’t change the meaning of the word. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/49 "2010-10-26T18:23:29Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > What if someone pronounces it correctly without making a big deal out of it? There is a certain pretentiousness with pronouncing foreign words with a different accent than your standard accent. So yes, the mere act of doing it is pretentious. Why do you think politicians dumb down their speech and refuse to use foreign phrases? Because when you use big/obscure words or foreign pronunciation, it’s just a way of showing off, it’s annoying, and (pen!)ultimately it makes people not like you. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/50 "2010-10-26T18:37:26Z")
I dimly recall back in the day when Nicaragua was a political hot spot. All the lefty types in college, pardon moi, university would pronounce it as though they had just fallen off a refugee truck. “Yeah, dude, the way the US is treating _La Repúblícá de Ničắragüá_ just sucks, man.” Usually this story is longer and more shaggy dog like, but I figured you guys would be happy with just a précis. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/51 "2010-10-26T18:41:13Z")
Words are not pretentious. People are pretentious. Using fancy words can be fun and if your audience knows what they mean, then all is fine. But for some, the goal is simply to show off how educated or superior they are. This itself may or may not be pretentious. As **Nava** posted, pretentious refers to a person trying and failing to appear as being better than they actually are. What the OP complains of sounds more like elitism than pretention. If I use the fancy word properly, I’m showing off my superior use of language and am, therefore, elitist. If I mangle the word or commit a malappaproism, THEN I’m being pretentious. Because I’m failing to live up the image I’m trying to project. Or so I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/52 "2010-10-26T18:46:00Z")
OMG, returned-peace-corps-types (no offense **sven** and **Kyla** ) are the WORST about this. Gah, I remember meeting this girl at a party who went to USCF med school (top 3 med school in the country) who was going on and on about how she preferred the French spoken in SomewhereObscureInAfrica (I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and say Burundi or something) to France French . . . I think this is also a reason Megan on Mad Men gets on my nerves a bit. She throws around her French like it might be taken away from her tomorrow. My last bf was Quebecois and bless his heart but he though the Washington Post came out of Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/53 "2010-10-26T18:47:45Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I dimly recall back in the day when Nicaragua was a political hot spot. All the lefty types in college, pardon moi, university would pronounce it as though they had just fallen off a refugee truck. “Yeah, dude, the way the US is treating _La Repúblícá de Ničắragüá_ just sucks, man.” Do you remember the SNL skit, Jimmy Smits was the guest star (I think) where they lampooned this – the extremely whitebread newscasters were saying Nicaragua like “Neekarawa” and Jimmy was like, “it’s ok, you can just pronounce it like in English” but they wouldn’t stop. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/54 "2010-10-26T18:48:16Z")
Ah, that’s a good point. I suppose I was not really considering the distinction between elitism and pretentiousness. I support **Hypno-Toads** definition, and maintain there is nothing wrong with being an elitist. In fact, come to think of it, my 5th-grade teacher once called me an elitist. When I was a 5th grader. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/55 "2010-10-26T18:56:51Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > because there’s an English word that means the same thing. If you say “précis” when you could say “summary” or “abstract,” you’re a pretentious ballwasher. I would think the pretentious person would be the guy who hires someone to wash his balls, not the actual washer. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/56 "2010-10-26T18:56:54Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Do you remember the SNL skit, Jimmy Smits was the guest star (I think) where they lampooned this – the extremely whitebread newscasters were saying Nicaragua like “Neekarawa” and Jimmy was like, “it’s ok, you can just pronounce it like in English” but they wouldn’t stop. I remember during the initial phases of the Iraq war, there was a newscaster on CNN who would do this with Saddam. Right in the middle of a sentence, there would be a little pause, an almost unnoticeable intake of breath, then “Sad-DAM _HU-SSEIN_” said very rapidly and in an entirely different accent, and then back to her normal east coast newscaster tone and tempo. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/57 "2010-10-26T19:08:09Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Do you remember the SNL skit, Jimmy Smits was the guest star (I think) where they lampooned this – the extremely whitebread newscasters were saying Nicaragua like “Neekarawa” and Jimmy was like, “it’s ok, you can just pronounce it like in English” but they wouldn’t stop. Possibly. I may have been in _Paree_ when it aired. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/58 "2010-10-26T19:11:11Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > I support **Hypno-Toads** definition, and maintain there is nothing wrong with being an elitist. That’s because we make it look so good. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/59 "2010-10-26T19:20:19Z")
_Context._ Context is everything. > [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Words are not pretentious. People are pretentious. > > Using fancy words can be fun and if your audience knows what they mean, then all is fine. But for some, the goal is simply to show off how educated or superior they are. This itself may or may not be pretentious. As **Nava** posted, pretentious refers to a person trying and failing to appear as being better than they actually are. What the OP complains of sounds more like elitism than pretention. If I use the fancy word properly, I’m showing off my superior use of language and am, therefore, elitist. If I mangle the word or commit a malappaproism, THEN I’m being pretentious. Because I’m failing to live up the image I’m trying to project. If your dissertation on 17th-century European economics has a précis, you’re probably using it appropriately. If your entry in the Waffle King Placemat Coloring Contest has a précis, you’re being pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/60 "2010-10-26T19:35:37Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Words are not pretentious. People are pretentious. > > Using fancy words can be fun and if your audience knows what they mean, then all is fine. But for some, the goal is simply to show off how educated or superior they are. This itself may or may not be pretentious. As **Nava** posted, pretentious refers to a person trying and failing to appear as being better than they actually are. What the OP complains of sounds more like elitism than pretention. If I use the fancy word properly, I’m showing off my superior use of language and am, therefore, elitist. If I mangle the word or commit a malappaproism, THEN I’m being pretentious. Because I’m failing to live up the image I’m trying to project. > > Or so I’ve heard. I think you can still be pretentious if you use a word correctly. If you use a word to make yourself appear better than everyone else because of your vocabulary, and the word only makes you sound more obtuse, then you’re being pretentious. To add some context to our discussion, the person who used it was a law student who was referring to an abstract. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376.md?page=4)