If the more esoteric word doesn’t add any clarity or meaning to what the speaker was trying to say, then what’s the value in using it? Except maybe to show everyone that you know the word?
What kind of word usage would you find pretentious?
I don’t know. I don’t think that I’d classify as someone as pretentious just on their vocabulary. Sometimes people just like how words sound. Or sometimes words don’t mean exactly the same thing. Sometimes you need another language to find…le mot juste. 
“Marque” a a synonym for trademark (as I saw used in The Economist this month) is pretentious because:
- It’s obviously trying to adopt some false cachet
- It’s wrong
But “marque” is not a synonym for “trademark” at all, it’s a different concept.
Exactly.
A lot depends on the delivery. Some people can make vanilla sound pretentious.
So…tempted…to…change title…
My submission for most pretentious word is “oeuvre.” Although “milieu” is running a close second.
They cursed us! *Murderer *they called us! They cursed us and drove us away … And we wept, Précis, we wept to be so alone. And we only wish to catch fish so juicy sweet. And we forgot the taste of bread… the sound of trees… the softness of the wind. We even forgot our own name. My Précis!
(yes, I know it’s not pronounced like that, but it reads well)
I thought this board was dedicated to fighting ignorance, not celebrating it.
I think that how pretentious the usage of a particular word is has to be a matter of how the speaker feels about it, rather than the hearer. It doesn’t matter how familiar you are with a word, it only becomes pretentious if the speaker is using it for effect.
You may never have heard “précis” before yesterday, for instance, but for me it’s a fairly common, work-a-day word I learned at school ('twern’t a posh school, neither) – it springs to mind a good deal more readily than “abstract” would, for instance.
Should I consider you pretentious if you refer to a summary of your career as a “résumé” rather than a “CV” as everyone around here does?
Well, are they pronouncing it PRAY see or pray SEE? The latter accenting is an affectation that people seem to take when over-pronouncing French words, and is often made fun of.
Neither really make your point. Precis is a direct loan word that uses unusual spelling rules (for English). Rendezvous is an indirect loan of the phrase “rendez-vous,” meaning “present yourselves.” Route has no real spelling problems in English, since silent E’s are common, and either pronunciation of the OU digraph can be used.
I’ve had two different professors who fell into the trap of misappropriating french words. One referred to “objets d’arts,” which he pronounced “objay darts.”
The other never used lowly “paper” mache, he used “papiyay” mache.
Oh, “esoteric”, is it, Mr Swallowed-The-Dictionary? What’s wrong with saying “unusual”? Showing off?
I find misusing a fancy word pretentious (as in “this dude is pretending that he knows more than he really does”, see m-w’s 1.a/b), I also have a problem with people using the one meaning of a word that was previously used once by some obscure poet in the 18th century (I’d say I find that dickish rather than pretentious, though), but have no problem with someone using a fancy word otherwise. Best case scenario, I learn a new word!
Big talk from someone who took 10 letters to say “Mars.” 
Which is the actual pronunciation. That’s like complaining about someone saying “nuclear” instead of the less pretentious “nucular.”
Indeed, why would he utilize that methodology? Because it’s totally penultimate?
Dammit. If this thread had been around when I first joined the Dope, I’d be **Mr. Swallowed the Dictionary **with the custom title pretentious ball-washer.
Of course the next thing you know being a ball-washer would be a cliché, and my new title would be a gaffe, and I would be seen to be gauche. Oh well, c’est la guerre, this is what I get for trying to be avant garde, or even au courant.
When you use a word in order to ensure that some people can’t understand you, you are being pretentious.
Whether the word you chose is obscure or not, is a matter of context. For example as a lawyer I think the latin term nunc pro tunc is quite ordinary (and fun to say). If I say “we amended the pleadings nunc pro tunc” lawyers know what it means. However If I am communicating with a non-lawyer, I will use the not-quite-the-same-but-good-enough phrase “we amended the pleadings and replaced the old one with the new one.” Because peppering my speech with latinisms is a way of excluding some people from understanding me. And my goal, in speaking, is to communicate information, not to look clever.
If you intentionally use words your listening audience is quite unlikely to understand, you’re not only pretentious, you’re a very ineffective communicator. I’m suprised anyone could find this statement controversial. Tailor your word choice to your audience and you’ll always do fine.
Excuse me, I have to go out to the car-hole to get something.