words that should stomped out of use

Guest · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2002 4:15 pm

We had a discussion the other day at work about certain words used by writers -- which none of us has even used in a spoken conversation. The premise of the discussion was that such words are less valid in connecting with readers because they are solely "writerly" words. I'm not sure I buy that, but I do think there are some annoying "writerly" words which should be banned on the basis of perpetual pretentiousness ... like "nascent" and "imprimatur."<p>Anybody else have some candidates to offer?

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2002 9:29 pm

Temblor . . . a word I wouldn't know existed if I weren't fascinated by stories of rattling dishes. It's less recognizable, especially out of context, than those other two words.

tommangan · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2002 8:52 am

I don't know if t's "writerly" but I really want to get rid of "campaign war chest."

ramblerdan · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2002 3:24 pm

Now that I'm working in academia, the irritating words are different. My favorite three at the moment (all aitch words, as it happens) are, in ascending order of pretentiousness:<p>hegemonic
heuristic
hermeneutics<p> You wouldn't believe how often I hear them.<p> (P.S.: I understand the "compared with/to" rule perfectly; I simply maintain that it's useless and silly.)

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words that should stomped out of use

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