Verbosity: A Way of Life
By: Jonas Caver
February, 2023
A Case for Verbosity
Good writing is concise. But, there is a case to be made for verbosity. In simplification, you lose the semantic distinction that gives your writing style and flair, and sometimes, writing in officialese is just plain fun. Esoteric writing (or speaking) isn’t all that bad—it’s almost like using cryptolect or linguistic gatekeeping, bringing along the positives and negatives of the latter. Of course, obfuscation often convolutes your meaning and the use of excessive jargon fundamentally transgresses Occam’s razor, leading to the unintentional ostracization of audience members that use different sociolects. Additionally (and most obviously), using unnecessarily big words makes you look like a pompous, pretentious, pseudo-highbrow prick. While this is mostly written with an air of sarcasm and satire, it would be disingenuous of me to say I didn’t enjoy writing this. With this in mind, here are some words that you can drop in your next conversation to raise a few eyebrows…
acrimony - n. A sharp and bitter hatred.
aforementioned - adj. Previously mentioned.
anodyne - adj. Noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offense or debate.
antipathy - n. A feeling of dislike (normally towards someone, less often towards something); repugnance or distaste often without any conscious reasoning.
antithesis - n. a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.
apoptosis - n. the death of cells which occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism's growth or development.
apotheosis - n. the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax.
asceticism - n. The principles and practices of an ascetic; extreme self-denial and austerity.
asinine - adj. Very foolish; failing to exercise intelligence or judgment or rationality.
banal - adj. Common in a boring way, to the point of being predictable; containing nothing new or fresh.
continuum - n. A continuous series or whole, no part of which is noticeably different from its adjacent parts, although the ends or extremes of it are very different from each other.
eclecticism - n. the practice of deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.
idiosyncrasy - n. a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual.
incorrigible adj. (of a person or their tendencies) not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed.
manifestly - adv. in a way that is clear or obvious to the eye or mind.
ostensible - adj. stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
posit - v. assume as a fact; put forward as a basis of argument.
revanchism - n. Metaphorical endeavoring to regain lost political or cultural territory.
sardonic - adj. Scornfully mocking or cynical.
untenable - adj. Not able to be held, as of an opinion or position.
vocable - n. A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.
whimsy - n. A quaint and fanciful idea; a whim; playfully odd behavior.
vitriol - n. cruel and bitter criticism.
William Faulkner once said Ernst Hemingway had “never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary,” to which Hemingway responded, “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” Both are legendary writers in their own right, and they both make a good point. Does complexity determine the quality of a piece of writing? What is the value of sesquipedalian words? This further raises the question: if they have no place in literature of all places, why do they exist at all as anything but historical remnants?
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