I guess someone putting on airs…but honestly, I agree that it’s about people, not words. And none of these words that I’ve seen are all that obscure. It’s bizarre to me that people think using French is pretentious, but maybe that’s because I studied it for several years.
Perhaps, just perhaps, not enough words. Embiggen your vocabulary.
What’s wrong with fortnight?
Americans don’t use it. As soon as you say “fortnight” you immediately make clear that you did not learn to speak English in America (or you have pretensions to sound that way).
I remember when I read “The Hobbit” in 5th grade, I had to look it up. A lot of Americans couldn’t even guess at the meaning, and if they guessed, would not guess “two weeks.” I assume the other poster used it in front of Americans and they were befuddled due to the, as he says, dialectical difference.
I’m a native French speaker and I’m pretty sure the words I have underlined dont come from French (I made a point there of not bothering checking).
What you are talking about and what the OP is talking about are two different things. You’re talking about words that come directly from French (and not Latin) that have entered the English language to finally become English words, usually pronounced the English way. The OP talks about loan words, words that entered the English language but still carry around their original pronunciation or grammar rules. The former are undistinguishable from English from a non-educated POV, the latter will shine like foreign words to the uneducated. To a pop that thinks everything foreign is fancy and bordering on gayness, it will sound like highly pretentious.
Using loan words when you have the exact equivalent in your original language (that is, not even a subtle difference. Synonyms can mean the same thing, but usually they will have slightly different nuances) sounds pretentious.
As for Rigamarole and Gestalt’s views on French and its contributions to English, they’re definitely off target. Most of the French words in the English language, even loan words dont come from foppish affectations by ruling classes.
They usually come from France’s dominating a “knowledge area” for long enough time to landmark it with its vocabulary. Take military vocabulary in the English language, it is full of French words and French loan words. Yet,as it doesnt fit the Anglo cliche of French contributions to the world, most Anglo speakers using those words would have no idea, and be content in their ignorance.
I find myself wishing that this were a serious discussion, as I have a related problem.
I’m an immigrant to the area in which I now live. I have an accent by local standards, although it mostly marks me as generic North American anglophone, and I have some remaining dialect words of which I am occasionally aware, which mark me as being from elsewhere. I also have a very scientific vocabulary, and, since **Ms. Attack **is a renowned grammar nob, I’m fairly careful with my grammar. In short, in the small town in which I now live, I probably come across like a cross between the Professor on Gilligan’s Island and Peter Mayle in Year in Provence.
Do I sound pretentious? Maybe. What should I do instead?
If someone uses a word you don’t know, and, for that reason alone, you decide that they are being pretentious, then yes, you are celebrating and wallowing in your own ignorance.
Of course, people sometimes act pretentiously, but the mere fact of their using a word you do not understand is never sufficient evidence that they are doing so. Most of the time, if people use words that you don’t know it is because they are overestimating your vocabulary and perhaps your general intelligence. They are paying you a compliment, and the proper reaction should be gratitude both for the compliment and for having provided you with the opportunity to learn something. It is your fault if you don’t know a word (even if it is a very obscure one - and there are many good and useful words far more obscure than “précis”), and to blame the person who uses it is simple boorishness.
Using words your audience does not understand (unless it is done merely to try to impress them) is not pretentiousness, it is overestimating the intelligence, or educational level, or your audience.
I do not know where “'round these parts” might be, but I learned the word “précis” from my high school English teacher, and I did not think he was pretentious for using it because - you know - teaching me more about the English language was his fucking job! Maybe you should try learning from your teachers instead of looking for reasons to sneer at them.
Are you trying to imply that grunge fans are dumber than you are? Now that’s pretentiousness.
I’m really surprised to get the whole, “We use [insert other word] 'round these parts” on a board like this. This is the same board where people talk about how “bragging” about being bad at math isn’t a good thing. Why should celebrating what words we don’t know be a good thing while knowing more words (and in a different language–horrors!) be bad?
Knowing lots of words is awesome. I love that I know what “consanguinuity” means. But words are a form of culture, and culture can be a weapon. Its about being inclusive, and making your point of view knows, so when “blood relationship” exactly the same thing and is more widely understood, it is the better word to choose. You will not find an English teacher anywhere who will advise you differently.
In the words of that noted anti-intellectual and linguistic ignoramus William Safire, “eschew obfuscation.”
B-b-but… for me “consanguinity” is easier to remember, being almost identical to the Spanish word. So if I use the word that’s easy for me to remember instead of going through a mental exercise of “ok, what day of the week is it, and therefore where am I?”, I’m being pedantic and pretentious instead of merely clueless?
Wh… wh… whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! 
(c’mon, we need a “cry me a river” smiley)
Now, I happen to be a foreigner from where you sit, but my point is, sometimes people use a word which is not what their audience would choose, not to be posher-than-thou, but because it happens to be the word they thought of first. And that’s pretentious? Really?
As for that Safire quote, cute.
Foreigners may say all sorts of absurd things without being considered pedantic, or even incorrect. My observation is that most people find unintentional foreignisms, and peculiar word choice kind of “cute,” sorry to say. We let my Russian teacher call elevators “lifts” for a year before we corrected her, because it was adorable and we knew what she meant.
The bigger issue is that people might be too polite, or too embarassed, to say that they have no idea what you’re talking about. Again, its about communication. I would advise you not to use that word in general unless you hear it in very common usage around you. (certain words are common in subgroups but virtually unknown in the general population: “conclusory” is a word used daily by attorneys but it isn’t even in the MS Word dictionary. )
If you have any intention of speaking with total American fluency (which is not to say that is or should be your goal) you would need to banish false friends from your everyday vocabulary. Of course that’s difficult. Being bilingual is extremely difficult if both languages aren’t native.
I just wanted to thank you for this. I’ve had a shitty morning and this has been the only bright spot to my day thus far. 
More on-topic, I learned the word in high school in about ‘83, and I don’t think I’ve heard it or used it since, except for every time I watch The Hunt For Red October (James Earl Jones’ character uses it as he hands Alec Baldwin’s character a precis of a government report).
via m-w.com:
foreign - Middle English forein, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin foranus on the outside, from Latin foris outside
avail [-able] - Middle English, Anglo-French availler, probably from a- (from Latin ad-) + valer, valoir to be of worth, from Latin *valēre
*
How else do you think new words enter the language, if not by foreign loan words?
They are perhaps thinking of how the swine becomes pork or the cow becomes beef, once it reaches the table of the Norman overlord. Very pretentious!
Hello Again nails yet, well, again.
See, I think that’s a really pretentious thing to say. It’s great that you studied it (really!), but are you so out of touch with mainstream America that you don’t realize that using random obscure French words when a more common American one will do is considered pretentious? And then blaming that ignorance on your study of French? Pretentious.
It’s like people who would go to the rural South and then express amazement that the locals have never traveled to Europe, because they’ve been vacationing in Paris since they were kids.
Know your audience, people.
I’m aware that a lot of people feel that way but I think it’s odd that people on a message board dedicated to fighting ignorance seem to feel that wallowing in ignorance is preferable to learning new things, yes.
Oh, enough with the pretentious BS. First, knowing what a word means doesn’t obligate you to use it.
Second, do you know what the word for “abstract” is in Russian? Estonian? Latvian? Farsi? Arabic? Hindi? Latin? Italian? German?
Do you feel like you are wallowing in ignorance? Or do you feel like there’s no point in using any of those words in daily conversation and thus no point in learning them?
No, but at the same time, if someone else uses a word that I don’t know, I don’t act as though they’re putting on airs. It just seems like you’d have to be really insecure to act as though there’s something wrong with someone using a word you don’t know.
Well, personally, if someone uses a word I don’t know, I will always look it up. My reaction depends on what the definition is.
If it’s a word that has a unique or useful meaning, I’ll be happy to have learned a new word. E.g. “schadenfreude”.
If it’s an esoteric word (either an obscure word in English, or worse, a word from another language) that means exactly the same thing as an equivalent common English word, I’ll think the user is a pretentious twat.
No one is wallowing in ignorance.
I was actually intrigued when I first saw the word “precis.” I knew the email was going to be about a paper topic the law student was working on, so I guessed that the speaker was referring to a social science concept I’ve never heard of. It was only when I learned that it meant “summary” that I was somewhat disappointed.
I think that law students are more prone to using big words because they fear people will take them less seriously if they don’t. I find that practice annoying, not the fact that I came across a new french word.
I’m glad I learned the word “precis”. Now I have something to use when I want to come across as a pretentious ballwasher for fun. That and “conspectus”.
ETA: Absolute said it perfectly.