Comments on: First Wordist Manifesto of 2016: Voracious

By: Michael west

Michael west — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 22:39:35 +0000

Every time you write exegesis I groan and have to look it up. It sounds like an anal wart. Normally I love rococo syntax and funny words.. but there are limits.

By: Suspended

Suspended — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 15:39:43 +0000

I need the word “edit” to go away in reference to fashion. There must be a “sartorial” genie somewhere that can grant me that one wish….possibly two.

Fuck…now it’s giving me roman numerals and black dots in my mathematical subtraction. Kudos for have the weirdest captcha system I’ve ever encountered. I love it, in the worst kind of way.

By: helen waite

helen waite — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 18:03:28 +0000

I have not checked in at SW for a while (dunno why) but my return was rewarded with seeing this post on a subject that is also one of my bugaboos, yet slightly harder to articulate. It’s close to the misused word/punctuation/grammar irritants that many can unite in disdain of, but not quite; perhaps a subset?

Anyway, yeah – that pretentious use of words in some sort of attempt to convey “intellect” or confer “gravitas”*.

You know where I hear that stuff all the time? Football announcers (why must they say “the football” rather than “the ball”? ) and police in news reports (“individual” or “gentleman” rather than “person” or “suspect”).

I’m also sick as sh-t of:
“uber” instead of “very”
“channelling” instead of “dressed as” or “imitating” – extra hate-points when they are “channelling their inner____-“.

Blow me.

Thank you, SW.

* there’s another overused one.

By: Sister Wolf

Sister Wolf — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 05:18:49 +0000

drollgirl – This really remind me of my own dad, who loved to say ‘piece de resistance’ and ‘statuesque.’ Once he was telling me aboaut a woman he liked to talk to and said, ‘We have such a repertiore!’ (meaning rapport)

By: drollgirl

drollgirl — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 01:26:14 +0000

my dad isn’t well educated, but he reads a lot (note: i did not use the word VORACIOUS to describe his reading habits) and through this process he would find new words he liked and just use them to death. ABSURD was his favorite word for years. he used it a lot. then he started using the word EXQUISITE — a word that i think applies to almost nothing in life.

i was just a kid during my dad’s EXQUISITE phase. he took my family out to dinner one night at denny’s. the waitress asked how our meal was, and my dad replied that it was “EXQUISITE”. the horror. wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG.

oh. here’s another one. long ago i worked at MOCA. the chief curator — a well known JACKASS – was in a board (BORED) meeting that I had to attend (i was the loser taking minutes — don’t get excited). i was filled with glee when he said that something would just EXASPERATE THE PROBLEM. i could only laugh silently at his faux paux (a phrase my dad pronounces FOX POX). that’s probably my one and only fond memory of that jerk off.

By: kate

kate — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 15:58:14 +0000

The over/misuse of dumb words is why I don’t read practically anything on the internet anymore. I’ll read news, product reviews and forums, but blogs and “articles” I skim. Recipes on blogs are the worst offenders, always with these mile-long faux humble/nostalgic/quirky preambles. Our American schools have ruined our vocabularies (along with our math and critical thinking skills) but thank goodness we still have our inflated senses of self-worth!
Your blog is the only one I read with full attention. Maybe because you are the smartest person on the internet or perhaps just the most honest.

By: Jaimi

Jaimi — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 19:48:23 +0000

I’m SO annoyed by fashion websites and buzzfeed type lists that “PROVE” something. It needs to stop!

By: Katy

Katy — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 10:57:29 +0000

A phrase that perfectly captures the ridiculousness of using word like “loquacious” when you mean “talkative” is calling them five dollar words.

https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/style/pompous_words.html

By: Dj

Dj — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 16:45:02 +0000

Ok here goes…

Awesome for everything, cool as a response/reaction for everything, spot on (ridiculous sounding), suss (?) as in sussing out information,whites using black vernacular, no worries, all sports language, still hate curate, blessed (loathe some) all degraded philosophical mumbo jumbo — it happened for a reason, it is what it is, something better will come from this. Utter fortune cookie hogwash!!
As long as we’re in the midst of our country being absolutly vilified and written off by the rest of the world,
Donald trump, Ted Cruz, republicans, evangelical, tea party, constitution, debate.

By: annemarie

annemarie — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 20:00:35 +0000

The word bourgeois names something specific that “middle class” does not– middle class is just an economic term that includes anyone who is not rich and not poor, but bourgeois has hoity-toity connotations, comfortably off people who went to college and go on interesting holidays and read books and import their opinions from the New Yorker and Harpers. It’s an excellent and very useful word. I could not do without it.

This isn’t a word but it’s like your voracious joke-teller story. My husband works with a young woman who is always forgetting shit. One day, she said “oops, baby brain!” My husband said, “Oh, did you have a baby?” She looked at him as though he was stupid and said, “eh….no?”