What's the most pretentious word?

"Attorney"

Everybody besides lawyers says "lawyer", but lawyers feel the need to sound pretentious so they use the word "attorney" instead.

Deplorable. Nuff said

jay walter weatherman wrote:

Harambe wrote:

Sure,

What's the point of ragging on people for word choice. If you understand what they are saying then they have been an effective communicator.

Any mocking of someone for these things is just an attempt to appear smarter/more 'in the know'/etc -- pretentiousness.

Are you taking the stance that no one ever choose a word/words purely to try to sound more intelligent? All we are doing is acknowledging that happens, and giving our guess as to what words are used most frequently to try to accomplish this. That is not an example of thinking I'm better than someone. I have faults of my own.

What is the motive for 'exposing' someone's pretentiousness?

Why does it matter to you the reasons people choose one word over another.

I suspect it is to make yourself feel better/smarter. Pretentiousness.

Harambe wrote:

jay walter weatherman wrote:

Are you taking the stance that no one ever choose a word/words purely to try to sound more intelligent? All we are doing is acknowledging that happens, and giving our guess as to what words are used most frequently to try to accomplish this. That is not an example of thinking I'm better than someone. I have faults of my own.

What is the motive for 'exposing' someone's pretentiousness?

Why does it matter to you the reasons people choose one word over another.

I suspect it is to make yourself feel better/smarter. Pretentiousness.

I'm not trying to expose anything or trying to make myself feel better. Where are you getting that from? Someone started a thread and I'm acknowledging what happens in real life and making a prediction. Just as I would if someone said he ran 5 x mile workout averaging 5:48 and wanted to know what he might run for a 5k.

Are you taking the stance that no one ever choose a word/words purely to try to sound more intelligent?

"soupçon."

Try and come up with a non-pretentious way of using it- not easy.

"deplorables", as in: a basket thereof.

If someone started a thread saying "What's the most common lie told?" and I weighed in that I think it is telling someone what your plans are/where you are that aren't true, would that make me pretentious in your eyes, too?

"liberal". Means, more open-mindedness, smarter than you, more enlightened, more caring.

pert wrote:

"liberal". Means, more open-mindedness, smarter than you, more enlightened, more caring.

I'd say using the word "fiscal" or "fiscally" when describing your political beliefs without anyone asking you about fiscal policy.

To the guy who mentioned "artisan" a few pages ago: good one!

Geez, it's just a fricken chicken sammich! STHU. That word makes my teeth itch.

blame these guys if you do not agree with the list

I looked it up wrote:

poor synonyms wrote:

These are really poor synonyms. Being pretentious means that you are affecting a level of intelligence or culture that you don't actually possess. Your synonyms do not capture the bolded.

blame these guys if you do not agree with the list

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/pretentious

Look at you trying to shift the blame...

In my day, kids learned to take responsibility for their actions, instead of seeking a scapegoat immediately.

"Optics" to mean "how something would look" or "how people would take [thing]"

Used in a sentence: "The optics on the word 'optics' becoming a cool word all of a sudden are very bad indeed."

z'iwwerwaachen

jay walter weatherman wrote:

If someone started a thread saying "What's the most common lie told?" and I weighed in that I think it is telling someone what your plans are/where you are that aren't true, would that make me pretentious in your eyes, too?

This is different. People pick words because they want to use them. You are assuming some sort of deceptive intent by the speaker/writer to appear more intelligent. Who are we to decide what words are appropriate for daily use?

bootylicious

whom

Samsquanch wrote:

What's the most pretentious word?

No, it really isn't. Practically everybody uses the word, "what", with some frequency.

Not pretentious at all.

Not a word but a phrase: "Love trumps hate"

This is pretentious in the sense that its users are attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.