Comments on: Pushing words off of the ivory tower’s balcony

By: will

will — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:00:38 +0000

Gillian,

Sounds like a very fascinating place to work. Could you elaborate on the contrast between “timely” and “timeously”?

Glad you enjoyed the site!

Will

By: Gillian Palmer

Gillian Palmer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:50:08 +0000

You should try working in an English law firm where words like “posit” are bread and butter words. Other words I’ve heard spoken, or read in judgments include “lanthanine”, “proleptic” as well as the linguistically confusing “timeously” – which means “in good time” rather than something to do with fear, as you would expect. So there you go. If you want to find others who speak your idiolect, come to the City of London!

Love your blog.

By: Arthaey Angosii

Arthaey Angosii — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:52:16 +0000

@Glen Gordon: I’m right there with you on “floccinaucinihilipilification”. :)

By: Glen Gordon

Glen Gordon — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:18:13 +0000

I think ‘posit’ sounds more neutral than ‘assume’. People often use ‘assume’ in a negative or irrational way, to mean taking something as true _without proof_ (e.g.: “Mary assumes that evolution is poppycock (so many assume that she’s a nutcase).”).

However, ‘posit’ seems less biased and “open to further proof” to my ears (e.g.: “Mary posits that evolution is poppycock (for the sake of arguement in order to perhaps disprove those crazy fundamentalists).) Maybe I’m reading too much into it but that’s what it sounds like to me.

Personally, I recommend the following words in casual conversation:

– e’en
– comeuppance
– contraindicative
– floccinaucinihilipilification
– parsimony
– sesquipedalianism
– subcutaneous

Wow your friends! Hehe.

By: s.e.

s.e. — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:53:21 +0000

I see nothing particularly wrong with ‘assume’; your vague criticism that it would “make it sound like there’s no other option” doesn’t apply to any use of ‘assume’ I’ve ever seen. In the context you provided it makes perfect sense and limits reality in no way. “Posit” has connotations of argument, I feel, and the active support of an assumption rather than just the creation of the assumption. I could understand wanting to get some terms (‘thrice’ and ‘wherein’ for me) into common parlance so one doesn’t seem so very strange in using them, but ‘posit’ in this sense is, I think, a misuse and a pointless thing for which to argue.

By: fitzage

fitzage — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:04:02 +0000

I had a friend in college who was unbelievably well read and used many unusual words.

What was quite interesting is that he somehow always managed to get his meaning across. He used language, even his unusual words, in ways that elucidated rather than obfuscated.

On the other hand, I have a friend now who likes to use big words to obfuscate. He doesn’t use them in normal speech much, and when he does use them he’s purposefully making sure you have to ask him what they mean.