Words to learn that will make one appear educated

Pastiche Melange (These two are French desserts, btw.)

• A truly educated person gets their point across using language that is accessible by their target audience. Or, for OP: you gotta talk like the people you want to like you.

• R1=espèce de crétin

• OP, the only appropriate use of the word "melange" is in the term "spice melange".

  Geek

• R2, darling: On t'a bercé trop près du mur?

• Frottage. Used here on DL. Makes me laugh when someone uses it.

• [quote]A truly educated person gets their point across Correction: A truly educated person gets his point across or Truly educated people get their points across Didn't anyone ever teach you the difference between singular and plural, R1?

  You Poor Thing

• Bathos (but only in writing; you should never actually say it)

• R6, did it ever occur to you I was putting my point into practice? The best way to say what I wrote would be to simplify it even more: "a truly educated person conveys a message using audience-appropriate language."

• ubiquitous fastidious obsequious germane

• R6, using "they" and "them" when referring to the singular in order to avoid having to use the awkward-sounding "his or her" is perfectly acceptable across the English-speaking world. How can you not know that?

  Not%20R1

• Fabulous. Scandulous.Malicious.

• Jejune. Meretricious.

• You should use "discharge" as often as possible. I connotes meticulous breeding and taste. As in, "I'm afraid I shall have to discharge some of my servants due to their recurring tardiness." Or, with with another meaning, "Cheryl, you've obviously got some discharge running down your legs into your shoes because we can all smell it! Warsh yer goddamn cooch, cunt!"

• fatuous declasse

• Saturnine.

• OP, My all time favorite word is "recondite."

• egregious; postmodernism; fibromyalgia; gregarious; nefarious; niggardly

• r10, is correct!

  Language%20Mob

• R10 is incorrect, as is R18's use of the comma. Oh, and "pastiche" and "melange" are not French desserts, as I suspect the socially awkward troll OP knows perfectly well.

• [quote]using "they" and "them" when referring to the singular in order to avoid having to use the awkward-sounding "his or her" is perfectly acceptable across the English-speaking world. How can you not know that? It is perfectly acceptable when you are speaking, but not when you are writing. And it's no longer necessary to do the awkward "his or her" thing--it's fine to use "his" once in awhile and "her" once in awhile. Or just make things plural if you can. Again, this only applies to writing. Which I guess is what we do here on this board.

• "Peripatetic." "Calumny." "Forte," pronounced "fort."

• "They" and "them" are also used when someone is not certain of the gender they're dealing with, as in "Who was that on the phone? I don't know; they hung up." People use the plural even when they know they're actually referring to the singular. R6 and R19 are grammar purists/schoolmarms who have no clue (or refuse to understand) how English is used in real life.

• Milieu. Frasier and Nile Crane loved that word.

• Demotic.

• Jandra.

  Bo%20%22American%20Idol%22%20Bice.

• [quote]It is perfectly acceptable when you are speaking, but not when you are writing It's an internet message board - writing here resembles everyday speech.

• Approbation Long-lived (with a long i) Ballywick

• Is forte really not pronounced like fortay? If I say "legal analysis not my fort" will people laugh/correct me?

• R6=old-timey grandpa who hasn't evolved with non-sexist language.

  Editor for a Living

• R21, I don't even use the "fort" pronunciation anymore because I'm tired of being (incorrectly) corrected. Metier.

• Periwinkle Batanage Investment income.

• It's bailiwick. obstreperous risible abstemious

• This thread should be titled "Words to learn that will make one appear as if one wants to appear educated"

• Gadzooks Chiaroscuro Eponymous Cunt-bucket

• [quote]Is forte really not pronounced like fortay? No, it's pronounced "fort," like "tarte" (as in "tarte tatin") is pronounced "tart."

  r21

• [R29] is a really really super bad editor who spends his (or her or their or whatever) days giving editing advice on Datalounge.

  Old%20Timey%20Grandpa

• [quote][R6] and [R19] are grammar purists/schoolmarms who have no clue (or refuse to understand) how English is used in real life. English is often used incorrectly in real life, as I am well aware. R20's got the right take on the his/her/their situation. And r33 is correct about the title of this thread.

  r19

• "Fortay" has become the accepted pronunciation, that's what happens sometimes in language. Otherwise, like Latin, it dies. Deal with it, Marys!

  scrumtrulescent%21

• You bitches hard.

• [quote]Is forte really not pronounced like fortay? Not in the sense of "strong suit." It's French, so it's "fort." In the musical sense of "loud" it's Italian, so it's "for-teh."

• ostensibly copacetic douche

• Ain't nuthin wrong wit dat.

• Frelgomar Précidler Mnjodiculmå

• Has anyone watched any in-depth post Angie Brad Pitt interview? It's almost painful to watch him try and squeeze in as many ten cent words as possible. Someone with a naturally large vocabulary and good communication skills will use some big words but only to be more precise in conveying their point without it being forced. You need to know your audience and how to code switch when needed. Stephen Fry is a good example of a great communicator who knows all the big words but isn't trying to impress, they are just a part of him.

• unctuous

• Brad Pitt is an intellectual manqué, bless his heart. And that mildly pejorative term is another way to show yourself as a smarty pants.

• Merde

• dilettante sycophant solipsistic lagniappe

• mysangist

• hagiographic schadenfreude eleemosynary savoir-faire marginalia uxorious vapid

• Giudicean.

• Sesquipedalian Strabismic Salpingo-Oophorectomy

  I%20miss%20Wm.%20Safire

• cache'; sturm und drang; je ne sais quoi; vive le difference; bourgeois

• Genre. I win!

• false dichotomy

  every "debate" on DL!

• R53, learn the difference between "cachet," and "cache," and their respective pronunciations.

• And while you're at it, R53, learn the difference between words, names of historical movements, and expressions.

• sanguine loquacious hirsute debonnaire jolie-laide

  DL queen

• What r26 said. It's perfectly acceptable in casual writing.

• cromulent

  Ms%20Hoover

• Sori'ee I should know.....I had plenty of them

  Pamela%20Harriman%27s%20rotting%20%2C%20selfish%2C%20greedy%20corpse

• "According to Nate Silver..."

  Joe%20Scarborough

• lovely, persnickety, as well, cruciferious, bali hi.

• inchoate ameliorate querulous obdurate emolument puissant

• R64 = a devotee of Barron's GRE study guides.

• The preferred pronunciation of valet rhymes with ballot. The word valet came into English from Old French with the 't 'pronounced, because that is what Old French was like. Many years later as Middle French became modern French, the consonants at the end of word were dropped in French. However, by that time valet was in use in the English speaking world with the 't' pronounced. So speakers of French and English said it differently, Sometime in the 19th century, pretentious English speakers wishing to sound learned and observing that the word looked like a French word, incorrectly started dropped the final 't'. Forte for ones strong point sounds just like a fort soldiers use. The word forte in music pronounced for-tay and meaning loud is a completely different word.

• If you know forte is pronounced fort, say it correctly. If the person you're speaking with doesn't get it, too bad. Never lower yourself to the ignorant.

  Hyacinth

• If you're in a highwy diner and want strawberry crepes, do you say crapes in deference to the waitress?

• In a white table cloth Italian restaurant, the Italian-looking waiter said the specials included peh-NAY and NO-kee.

• R69 And broo-SHETT-a?