# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/121 "2010-10-28T13:42:17Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > Again though, it has everything to do with audience. For a niche group of people, precis is a recognized word. For most people, it’s not. This assertion is a bit baseless isn’t it? “Précis” seems as common as dirt, from where I’m sitting. Let’s see what Google says: [“Write a précis”](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22write+a+pr%C3%A9cis%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) - About 50,300 results [“Write an abstract”](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22write+an+abstract%22&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m7&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) - About 27,800 results How is that the “niche” word has a better representation than your suggested alternative? ---
**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 28, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/122 "2010-10-28T14:06:11Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > Let’s see what Google says: > > [“Write a précis”](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22write+a+pr%C3%A9cis%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) - About 50,300 results > > [“Write an abstract”](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22write+an+abstract%22&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m7&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) - About 27,800 results Write an abstract without the quotes gets Two million+ results, write a precis without the quotes gets 300,000. However I have to wonder if its a regionalism or particular to an industry. My father has a humanities PhD, my mother has two masters (one in English literature) I have a JD, and we are all of us crossword-with-a-pen completers and Scrabble mavens – yet I have NEVER heard this word before, not at home, not in any academic context, nowhere. I’m not sure if it is significant, but of the first 10 “precis” results, only one is an academic site, and it’s Canadian. The rest are “yahoo answers” grade results. Of the “abstract” results, the majority are American academic websites or organizations promoting academic writing. You’re Canadian, aren’t you? Therein may lie the heart of our difference in experience. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/123 "2010-10-28T14:24:20Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Write an abstract without the quotes gets Two million+ results, write a precis without the quotes gets 300,000. You realize that “abstract” has other senses in wider usage, right? If we search for this phrase, we can get a sense of the specific use of the its noun sense in the English-speaking world. I would tend to agree that the different usage may be regional, but given our relative populations it is clearly not a case of “Americans exclusively use ‘abstract’”. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/124 "2010-10-28T14:32:50Z")
I kept running across the word ‘‘cadre’’ the other day, and it annoyed the hell out of me that I didn’t know what it meant. I looked it up in the dictionary. Turns out the person using it didn’t know what it meant, either. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/125 "2010-10-28T14:53:11Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > This assertion is a bit baseless isn’t it? “Précis” seems as common as dirt, from where I’m sitting. > > Let’s see what Google says: > > [“Write a précis”](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22write+a+pr%C3%A9cis%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) - About 50,300 results > > [“Write an abstract”](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%22write+an+abstract%22&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m7&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) - About 27,800 results > > How is that the “niche” word has a better representation than your suggested alternative? Yeah, you’re right. Precis is "common as dirt,"just like, well, the word dirt, and actually twice as common a word as abstract. Those of us in this thread who think the word is obscure are wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/126 "2010-10-28T15:31:21Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > Yeah, you’re right. Precis is "common as dirt,"just like, well, the word dirt, and actually twice as common a word as abstract. Those of us in this thread who think the word is obscure are wrong. Okay, that was unnecessarily sarcastic. My point is, the results of a google search on a quoted phrase are hardly indicative of how familiar the public is with a word. [“je suis”](http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22je+suis%22) returns 63 million hits (the top 5 were all in English and I didn’t look beyond that). [winnie the pooh](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Lady+Gaga%22#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=%22winnie+the+pooh%22&aq=f&aqi=g4g-o1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=ddfbf15c2e2f4021) only returns 4.5 million. Are americans really 16x more familiar with a french phrase than a childhood favorite? I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/127 "2010-10-28T15:56:39Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > Yeah, you’re right. Precis is "common as dirt,"just like, well, the word dirt, and actually twice as common a word as abstract. Those of us in this thread who think the word is obscure are wrong. I haven’t yet had my second cup of Tim’s magic brew, so the neurons that help me to recognize sarcasm when I see it may not be operating at full capacity, but yes, this is my impression. (Carefully qualified to note that we may have slightly different frames of reference.) As I said earlier, I would never have guessed that it was possible for an English-speaking academic to be unfamiliar with the word - and yet this is clearly the case. You see an unfamiliar and somehow pretentious word, which is puzzling from my POV because that’s just the word for that. This alternate perception _is_ every bit as counter-intuitive to me as a protest against the use of a common word like “café.” I would be very interested to see a geographical mapping of the distribution of the word, and to know exactly where (and why) its use is out of favour. [previews and reads second post] > [@gestalt](#): > > Are americans really 16x more familiar with a french phrase than a childhood favorite? I doubt it. This is an apples-and-oranges comparison, though. Searching for a common French fragment will return all French-language sites that contain it. “Write a précis” or “write an abstract” will return _only_ English-language results, using each word in the specific sense that we’re looking at. However, I see that if the search is confined to the .edu domain (returning results from only U.S. educational institutions,) “write an abstract” is in fact 20X more common. It seems reasonable to conclude that “précis” is the usual form in English, but “abstract” is more common in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/128 "2010-10-28T16:27:00Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > I haven’t yet had my second cup of Tim’s magic brew, so the neurons that help me to recognize sarcasm when I see it may not be operating at full capacity, but yes, this is my impression. You honestly thought that “precis” was a more common word than “abstract”? > [@](#): > > This is an apples-and-oranges comparison, though. Searching for a common French fragment will return all French-language sites that contain it. “Write a précis” or “write an abstract” will return _only_ English-language results, using each word in the specific sense that we’re looking at. As I said in my post, the first page of results, and at further exploration the second page, is 90% English. > [@](#): > > However, I see that if the search is confined to the .edu domain (returning results from only U.S. educational institutions,) “write an abstract” is in fact 20X more common. It seems reasonable to conclude that “précis” is the usual form in English, but “abstract” is more common in the U.S. Or, that abstract has about a zillion uses, including all academic fields, including sciences (in which English is the [ironically termed] _lingua franca_ and in which I have never seen the term precis), and precis is confined to a very niche field. This is a like a gastroenterologist coming in here and saying, “What do you mean, no one’s ever heard of Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography? I use that term like ten times a day!” ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/129 "2010-10-28T16:31:56Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > However, I see that if the search is confined to the .edu domain (returning results from only U.S. educational institutions,) “write an abstract” is in fact 20X more common. It seems reasonable to conclude that “précis” is the usual form in English, but “abstract” is more common in the U.S. To this point, I think the fact that the US [has the most English speakers in the world](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population) and by far more native English speakers than all the native-English-speaking countries _combined_, I think what is common in the US _is_ what is common in English. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/130 "2010-10-28T17:58:58Z")
I don’t find the word _précis_ particularly obscure or pretentious, except that its connotation is of something more _precise_ than a summary, but when people ask for a _précis_ they’ll invariably accept a summary. While I do suppose that there’s such a thing as pretentiousness in word choice, there is a vast gulf between intent and perception. People who are widely read pick up a lot of vocabulary and get comfortable with words that may not be so commonly used. It’s a wonder to me that people don’t nearly so much resent an athlete for hard-won physical form and prowess as they do an intellectual for knowledge and breadth of expression. Merely being graceful and sculpted is not taken as evidence that someone thinks he’s better than you, yet the manifest results of time spent on the life of the mind anger people. Sure, an athlete _might_ feel superior and let you know, and would be an asshole to do so. But merely failing to suppress the natural consequences of education marks a person as an asshole. Of course, people do intentionally use words they expect others not to know as a kind of insult. But just because you don’t know a word, or know a less obscure word for the same concept doesn’t mean that the word was used with malicious intent, and you actually have to broaden your own vocabulary before you can reliably make this distinction. And you are prevented from doing so if everyone is carefully avoiding using “big words” so as to save themselves the stigma as “pretentious” whether fairly applied or not. The resulting feedback drags everybody down. I’m not suggesting any solution, I’m just explaining why I don’t set a lot of store by people pissing and moaning about “pretentiousness”. People who aren’t comfortable with the word _précis_ are already running the world. What more do they want? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/131 "2010-10-28T18:00:04Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > To this point, I think the fact that the US [has the most English speakers in the world](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population) and by far more native English speakers than all the native-English-speaking countries _combined_, I think what is common in the US _is_ what is common in English. This is a logical absurdity, given that the United States is a subset of the larger set of the English-speaking world. Faced with the appearance that “précis” is more commonly used globally than “abstract,” the only logical inference that you can make from the fact that such a large proportion of English speakers are American is that the use of “précis” _within the US_ is not insignificant. (Well, not exactly - you might also conclude that American academics are under-represented online - but given the history and development of the Internet I think we can confidently declare this to be counter-factual.) > [@Gestalt](#): > > You honestly thought that “precis” was a more common word than “abstract”? No, but it is an entirely ordinary and common word in the specific context that we’re talking about. When we’re talking about the sense of a written assignment, this _is_ the more common word. Really. That this is contrary to your experience only means that you have the _less common experience._ Among English-speaking people (as a whole) _“writing a précis”_ is an ordinary English phrase. It’s the _norm._ Although its use in the U.S. may be less common, it is still used in the context of U.S. academics - no doubt a nationwide survey would find further subsets of its distribution. If I had to bet, I would guess that students at the University of Detroit might not blink when asked to write a précis, but that University of Houston students may be more likely to find this an unfamiliar word. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/132 "2010-10-28T18:06:03Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > This is a logical absurdity, given that the United States is a subset of the larger set of the English-speaking world. Faced with the appearance that “précis” is more commonly used globally than “abstract,” the only logical inference that you can make from the fact that such a large proportion of English speakers are American is that the use of “précis” _within the US_ is not insignificant. You yourself said that it’s uncommon among US academics, and it’s also uncommon among the US general public. The only places where it _may_ be common is among non-American English speakers, academic or not. Therefore, it’s unfamiliar to the _majority_ of English speakers. And the fact that numerous posters in this thread are unfamiliar with this use shows that it’s not common. Your only assertion is that it’s common cuz you know it’s common. Cite please (besides the Google search thing). And I assure you not all of academia uses it. I have never, ever, ever seen it in a scientific journal, ever. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/133 "2010-10-28T18:07:50Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > No, but it is an entirely ordinary and common word in the specific context that we’re talking about. When we’re talking about the sense of a written assignment, this _is_ the more common word. Really. That this is contrary to your experience only means that you have the _less common experience._ ERCP is a very common term within gastroentrological circles. Would I not be a pretentious ass for throwing it around in front of a lay audience, or even among endocrinologists, without explanation? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/134 "2010-10-28T19:11:57Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > You yourself said that it’s uncommon among US academics, No, I said that it’s _less_ common. If one in twenty instructors ask their students to write a _précis_, that’s significant. > [@](#): > > Your only assertion is that it’s common cuz you know it’s common. Cite please (besides the Google search thing). I’m not sure what your objection to direct evidence of its usage is. American students are sometimes [asked to write a précis](http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/rhetorical-precis/sample/peirce_sample_precis_click.html). > [@](#): > > And I assure you not all of academia uses it. I have never, ever, ever seen it in a scientific journal, ever. You will never find a précis in a scientific journal - the entire English-speaking world agrees that _those_ sorts of summaries are “abstracts.” > [@](#): > > ERCP is a very common term within gastroentrological circles. Would I not be a pretentious ass for throwing it around in front of a lay audience, or even among endocrinologists, without explanation? In what way is this analogous with the situation in the OP? My assumption is that the student **Lakai** encountered believed that this word was part of **Lakai** ’s vocabulary, on the strength of their parallel experience. And why not? If I’m a law student and Professor Beagle required me to write a _précis_, am I a pretentious ass for assuming that someone with the same level of studies had a similar assignment and that we have a shared vocabulary about it? When PA students are [introduced to the concept of précis writing](http://faculty.mc3.edu/rdgreenw/precis/presentation.html), are they admonished to take care to refer to their précis as an “abstract” in conversation with other students, lest they be perceived as pretentious? ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/135 "2010-10-28T19:57:14Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > My assumption is that the student **Lakai** encountered believed that this word was part of **Lakai** ’s vocabulary, on the strength of their parallel experience. And why not? If I’m a law student and Professor Beagle required me to write a _précis_, am I a pretentious ass for assuming that someone with the same level of studies had a similar assignment and that we have a shared vocabulary about it? But lawyers in this thread weren’t familiar with the word, and neither was **Lakai**. Either the legal representation on this board (including **Lakai** ) has a poor vocabulary, or the word is just not that common even in the legal field. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/136 "2010-10-28T20:19:09Z")
> [@Gestalt](#): > > You yourself said that it’s uncommon among US academics, and it’s also uncommon among the US general public. The only places where it _may_ be common is among non-American English speakers, academic or not. Therefore, it’s unfamiliar to the _majority_ of English speakers. Either I’m misunderstanding you, or you’re misunderstanding the numbers in your own wiki cite: India and Nigeria alone total to more English speakers than the US and so without even counting countries 3 to 134, by definition Americans aren’t the majority of English speakers. In fact, to imply that what is common in the US is the definition of what is common in the world comes across as…well, somewhat pretentious!:smack: > [@](#): > > And the fact that numerous posters in this thread are unfamiliar with this use shows that it’s not common. Your only assertion is that it’s common cuz you know it’s common. Cite please (besides the Google search thing). And the fact that numerous posters in this thread are _familiar_ with this use shows that it _is_ common. Your only assertion is that it’s uncommon because you know it’s uncommon. Cite please (besides the Google search thing). Who wins this argument? > [@](#): > > And I assure you not all of academia uses it. I have never, ever, ever seen it in a scientific journal, ever. And you have read every single scientific journal ever written on any topic, ever ever ever? Wow. Even if you had, it’s still not proof that the word is uncommon. It either means you simply haven’t come across it, or (if you have read every journal ever ever ever) you ignored the word because you didn’t know what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/137 "2010-10-28T20:30:45Z")
[quote=“mnemosyne, post:136, topic:558376”] Either I’m misunderstanding you, or you’re misunderstanding the numbers in your own wiki cite: India and Nigeria alone total to more English speakers than the US and so without even counting countries 3 to 134, by definition Americans aren’t the majority of English speakers. In fact, to imply that what is common in the US is the definition of what is common in the world comes across as…well, somewhat pretentious!:smack: [QUOTE] I should have specified “native English” speakers for that. > [@](#): > > And you have read every single scientific journal ever written on any topic, ever ever ever? Wow. Even if you had, it’s still not proof that the word is uncommon. It either means you simply haven’t come across it, or (if you have read every journal ever ever ever) you ignored the word because you didn’t know what it meant. I have read enough scientific articles to know that it’s not part of the common parlance in the published scientific community. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/138 "2010-10-28T21:07:43Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > American students are sometimes [asked to write a précis](http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/rhetorical-precis/sample/peirce_sample_precis_click.html). That’s Oregon State - you know they’re pretty pretentious over there. > [@](#): > > When PA students are [introduced to the concept of précis writing](http://faculty.mc3.edu/rdgreenw/precis/presentation.html), are they admonished to take care to refer to their précis as an “abstract” in conversation with other students, lest they be perceived as pretentious? PA == “Pretentious Asses” There’s a lot more if you Google “precis writing”. So many pretentious English departments in oh-so-pretentious schools. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/139 "2010-10-28T21:17:05Z")
So you’ve read the [Journal of the American Academy of Ophthamology](http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620418/authorinstructions#prec)? Probably too niche. I suppose the [Ecological Society of America](http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2307/1934120) is also a niche in the scientific community? Those guys even used the word in their title. The [Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics](http://www.jlme.org/misc/ifora.dtl)? Here’s [another](http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/aca/3/1/35/)use in the title in a journal published by the rather obscure American Psychological Association. How about _Cancer Research_, the journal published by the [American Association of Cancer Research](http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/site/misc/ifora.xhtml)? I imagine their other 5 journals also use the word “Précis”: Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; and Cancer Prevention Research. Nope, not ever, ever, ever used in the published scientific community. Should I keep googling? ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376/140 "2010-10-28T21:33:50Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Nope, not ever, ever, ever used in the published scientific community. Should I keep googling? You so well refuted my point when I said it was never, ever, ever, ever, ever (x10 billion) used in the scientific community! Bravo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-word-more-pretentious-than-precis/558376.md?page=8)