That is, people somehow have the mistaken notion that if they use a fancy-pants, multisyllable word, as opposed to a very simple, straightforward word, that somehow people will think that they are better educated or smarter, when in fact, it's really just the opposite, especially if you're using a fancy word for a very ordinary idea.
Just a few of many recent examples: 4/25: antisettlement advocates 3/22: the anti-abortion advocate 2/14: anti-sweatshop advocates 2/12: an anti-pornography advocate As Mark notes, there's a perfectly good, straightforward word for people who oppose Israeli settlements, abortion, sweatshops and pornography: "opponents".
Straightforward word painting—"The floor is gray cement.
One word links them all, even if not a flashy new word.When Johnson was asked by a German magazine to write a short commentary on the revelations of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency NSAA) contractor who blew the lid on America's electronic eavesdropping, I was moved to muse that the German language had no straightforward word for "privacy".
And there will be longer written exercises rather than straightforward word identification.
The fact that neither the federal government nor the utility industry has figured out what to do with highly radioactive nuclear waste after more than 50 years of trying should give the president pause when he abuses that seemingly straightforward word "clean".
But penitence can be reached only by walking down a familiar path, lined with straightforward words: we are "lost sheep" because we have "left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done".
FDR used simple and straightforward words.
The straightforward words play against the music: "Clarify, pacify our love.
Pepper your talks with straightforward words that signal the tone you're trying to set.
