# That word’s not THAT obscure **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 22, 2004, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640 "2004-01-22T15:42:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/41 "2004-01-24T21:58:36Z")
I’m a little suprised that the younger people weren’t _more_ likely to know it – I feel like I come across it a lot in print, for example in tech product reviews – I know I’ve seen things like “the enhanced features of the Acme cell phone are easy to use, even for the confirmed Luddite.” And I don’t read tech journals either, I’m talking about reviews in mass market mags like Time. As to the social/professional aspects of the situation, it doesn’t need to be too uncomfortable for anyone provided you didn’t gape and yell “What kind of an idiot are you?” at your boss. (Which I’m sure you did not do.) I think it’s a positive thing that someone asked you – it’s better to ask than to sit there and wallow in ignorance. And now they know. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/42 "2004-01-24T22:20:04Z")
Well, I’m not a college graduate and I don’t hang out with a lot of erudite people, but I do know what “luddite” means, and where it came from. I also wouldn’t have been shocked if someone had used the word “niggard” in my presence, although I was more than shocked at the furor the use of it engendered. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/43 "2004-01-24T22:29:28Z")
Aren’t Luddites small gnomes cave dwellers? ---
**Author:** ![Live\_Better\_Electrically](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@Live\_Better\_Electrically](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Live_Better_Electrically)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/44 "2004-01-24T22:48:50Z")
I can match **krisolov** ’s “cull” story: About 15 years ago I was chastized by coworkers for using “big words” after saying “moot.” I’m sure others have experienced that phenomenon where you learn a new word and then see it everwhere. I looks like several members of the SDMB are in for a Luddite week. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/45 "2004-01-24T22:59:00Z")
**Spoz** says I use “big, fluffy words” on him (and others) all the time. Case in point: defenestrate. He knows what it means, but doesn’t like it when I use the word. My sister wanted to know this over the holidays: Why do people who have big vocabularies insist on showing them off, and never using the simpler term? Like “oleaginous” instead of “oily”… which I admit using on her. I told her it was to expand everyone else’s vocab. 😉 Oh, and yes… I’m familiar with the word “Luddite”… I read a lot, and am subscribed to one of those Word-of-the-Day email subscriptions. ---
**Author:** ![bettyspaghetti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@bettyspaghetti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bettyspaghetti)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/46 "2004-01-24T23:07:08Z")
Luddites; they drive buggies and eschew modern conveniences right? LOL :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/47 "2004-01-24T23:33:24Z")
**Dinsdale** , in my next life I want to be your kid. **Eureku** , my linguistics prof told us in the 1960’s that the _f_ in SNAFU stoof for “fouled.” I believed him! I _love_ words and the chance to learn new ones. My father made a dictionary stand that has a prominent place in our living room. My husband reads aloud to me and we stop from time to time to look things up. One word that I was unfamiliar with until recently is _gobsmacked_. Is that used in Great Britain or Austrailia more than in the States? I would love a really good definition; I don’t know that I’ve seen it in print other than on a forum. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/48 "2004-01-24T23:49:07Z")
‘Gobsmacked’ is certainly common in the UK…synonymous (tautologous?) with ‘speechless’. I’d hardly even regard it as colloquial, just maybe slightly informal. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/49 "2004-01-25T00:03:12Z")
> [@](#): > > My sister wanted to know this over the holidays: Why do people who have big vocabularies insist on showing them off, and never using the simpler term? I run into this attitude once in a while. (My response depends on whether the questioner is puzzled or obnoxious.) Frankly, the real answer is usually that I have no way of knowing what words “you” don’t know! “Simpler” words? Looking through this thread, we find _Luddite_, _surfeit_, _rivulet_, _cull_, and _moot_. Even _fungible_ and _soporific_ hardly count as “big” words. And each of those words is shorter and simpler than using a whole phrase to explain the concept in the middle of a sentence. If I engaged in some word-play in which I noted (allowing for my Great Lakes American English accent) that some eminent person’s imminent arrival would make his authority immanent, I would expect to be pilloried (possibly by those who _did_ understand the statement). Carrying around a list of all the words that everyone around me does not know seems a bit impractical. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/50 "2004-01-25T00:29:00Z")
I’m reminded of the story (reprinted by Scott Adams in one of his books) of the woman who got fired for using the word “pedagogical” in a report when one of the executives spectacularly misunderstood it. > [@Knowed Out](#): > > None of the dictionary quoters have bothered to define it in this thread either. So I guess I gotta go to [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) while this board shuts down again. _Please_ tell me you own an actual dictionary. The great majority of online dictionaries are fundamentally useless, and frankly there’s no excuse for not owning a printed dictionary if only so you can look things up when your ISP goes down. **Luddite** n. & adj. 1. _hist._ a member of any of the bands of English artisans who rioted against mechanization and destroyed machinery (1811-16). 2. a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology. adj. of the Luddites or their beliefs. [perhaps named after Ned Lud, who destroyed machinery c.1779] And now you know. ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/51 "2004-01-25T00:53:10Z")
I first encountered “luddite” in its historical context in 10th grade European history. I remember already being familiar with it when the term was introduced in class. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/52 "2004-01-25T01:01:45Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > _Please_ tell me you own an actual dictionary. The great majority of online dictionaries are fundamentally useless, Why do you say that? [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) gives essentially the same definition you did. ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/53 "2004-01-25T01:10:16Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I’m sure I often come across sounding like a pompous windbag, but I always feel that if a word means exactly what I want to say, and even more if it is fun to say, or if it suggests an interesting tangent or reference, well by all means use that word instead of some more pedestrian near-synonym. > > It sort of shocks me when I find I have so misjudged in this manner. I feel exactly the same way – that’s what’s great about English, that you can always find a word that means precisely what you want to say. What frequently shocks me is that people sometimes get well and pissed off that you’ve used a word they don’t know. When it happens that I use a word that my company doesn’t seem to understand and I haven’t provided sufficient context, I make an effort to explain myself so that they do understand what I’m saying. If they ask, I’ll tell them, and try not to make a big deal out of it. That people get all wound up about it says a lot about them, I think. I mean, jeez – if I don’t understand a word someone I’m talking to uses, I ask, and then I know. Big honking deal. You’re way off about baseball, though. Just so you know. NOT soporific. Enthralling, exciting, absorbing, stimulating, perhaps, but NOT soporific. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/54 "2004-01-25T01:46:01Z")
My experience with this was when I once used the word “innocuous” in a memo. ---
**Author:** ![agiantdwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8c91f0/32.png) [@agiantdwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agiantdwarf)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/55 "2004-01-25T02:23:36Z")
FWIW, we learned what Luddism was in 9th grade history class. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/56 "2004-01-25T02:42:56Z")
> [@](#): > > _Please_ tell me you own an actual dictionary. The great majority of online dictionaries are fundamentally useless, and frankly there’s no excuse for not owning a printed dictionary if only so you can look things up when your ISP goes down. Sturgeon’s Law posits that 90% of _everything_ is crud. That said, there are many good on-line references. The on-line [Merriam-Webster](http://www.m-w.com/) has nearly the identical contents as their Collegiate. [Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/) provides entries from multiple dictionaries, including the American Heritage, (and, whatever position one takes on their usage panel, their explicit definitions are well-researched). Sure, I like all my bound dictioanries, from the OED to the multiple copies of the collegiates, but that hardly invalidates an on-line entry (which has the additional advantage of providing a _spoken_ pronunciation unavailable in the text versions). ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/57 "2004-01-25T05:54:58Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > _Please_ tell me you own an actual dictionary. The great majority of online dictionaries are fundamentally useless, and frankly there’s no excuse for not owning a printed dictionary if only so you can look things up when your ISP goes down. I beg to differ. [www.m-w.com](http://www.m-w.com) did a fine job and I didn’t have to get off my lazy arse to go to the bookshelf for the paper dictionary. > [@m-w.com](#): > > Main Entry: Ludd·ite > Pronunciation: 'l&-"dIt > Function: noun > Etymology: perhaps from Ned Ludd, 18th century Leicestershire workman who destroyed machinery > : one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly : one who is opposed to especially technological change I consider myself well-read and I didn’t know what it meant. Some of the previous posts sound rather pompous. I’m sure I can find words that you’re not familiar with that wouldn’t qualify as obscure. ---
**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/58 "2004-01-25T08:09:24Z")
I had two moments like this in the same meeting. I had dropped both “ameliorate” and “exigent” in the same report. I wasn’t going for the dead-stop moment they produced, they were the words that came to mind to best describe what I was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![xayoz306](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xayoz306](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xayoz306)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/59 "2004-01-25T11:02:36Z")
One obscure word I have come across is sangrinacious. I don’t even know if it is a real word or not, but it was on an aptitude test I took once. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640/60 "2004-01-25T12:17:09Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Sturgeon’s Law posits that 90% of _everything_ is crud. That said, there are many good on-line references. The on-line [Merriam-Webster](http://www.m-w.com/) has nearly the identical contents as their Collegiate. [Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/) provides entries from multiple dictionaries, including the American Heritage, (and, whatever position one takes on their usage panel, their explicit definitions are well-researched). Sure, I like all my bound dictioanries, from the OED to the multiple copies of the collegiates, but that hardly invalidates an on-line entry (which has the additional advantage of providing a _spoken_ pronunciation unavailable in the text versions). Color me suitably contrite, then. Still, the few times I’ve used MW online and [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) I’ve had no luck (but I was probably looking for words only found in the OED at the time). I usually keep the Oxford Concise English dictionary immediately at hand because it also contains useful notes about usage, particularly where common practice is varied or technically incorrect (as in the _different to/from/than_ issue, or in the use of _comprise_), but have others floating about home and work. **sangrinaceous** : _adj._ full of sangria. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-word-s-not-that-obscure/225640.md?page=4)