Intelligent people don't need to use big words although they know them.

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A

Artistic

Sicc OG
#1
Dec 29, 2008
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This is my first thread in gom. What i want to discuss is this. If a person is truely intelligent they don't need to use super impressive vocabulary to get their point across. A lot of times I notice people trying to come across as intelligent and misusing big words or unnecessarily using big words for no reason to try and impress their audience.
I think people that are truely intelligent know how to get their point across in concise statements without over using big words to impress.
Thoughts?
 
ColdBlooded

ColdBlooded

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#3
Apr 25, 2002
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Intelligent people use "big words" because they are the best for getting the message across. Sure they can dumb things down, but we have big words for a reason. Intelligent people use them at specific times for specific reasons. Being concise doesn't have anything to do with the size of words.

People who over use "big words" or use "big words" to impress could be intelligent, but they are also arrogant.
 
W

WHITE DEVIL

Sicc OG
#4
Dec 25, 2003
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I see people trying to use larger words so they dont look stupid

And big words serve a point - I could say 'beating around the bush and not really getting to the point' or I could say 'circumlocution'

Although that is a somewhat antiquate word
 
Mr. Nice Guy

Mr. Nice Guy

Sicc OG
#6
Nov 24, 2003
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An intelligent person will use the most appropriate word they can in a situation without regard to the size of the world or its relative usage.

Also, for future reference, you should try to distinguish between using "big words" and possessing a large vocabulary.
 
Stealth

Stealth

Join date: May '98
#8
May 8, 2002
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#8
It depends if somebody is trying to sound intelligent or if they are intelligent. Key word is trying.

If you're a pompous prick who uses the word "pompous" just to sound smart, fuck you. But if you use the word pompous because its the first word that comes into your head and it best fits the sentence, Go Planet.

Either way, there are intelligent people who work as coal miners and have never picked up a book in their life. And then there are stupid ass people who got educated by high society, because the upper classes uses language as a barrier for social control.

I'm more concerned with the content of what people say.
 
Hutch

Hutch

Sicc OG
#9
Mar 9, 2005
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radiostationrep said:
i think alot depends on your audience and the point you are trying to get across. using big words people dont know the definition of will defeat its purpose.
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I love it when I read words whose definition I don't know - it's one of the only ways I can increase my own vocabulary. Whenever I read a book or article, if the author uses a word that I'm unsure of, I hit the dictionary straight away and find out what it means.

And I agree with most of the posters on this thread - using 'big words' isn't a tactic intelligent people use to dumbfound people with an opposing viewpoint (although it can be - usually only if their argument rests on pillars of salt though). Rather, obscure words can have very precise meanings which often fit a specific situation, so using 'big words' can greatly increase the conciceness of a statement (e.g. White Devil's 'circumlocution' - the definition of which I didn't know.... till now. Cheers :p).
 
radiostationrep

radiostationrep

Sicc OG
#10
Dec 2, 2006
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Hutch said:
I love it when I read words whose definition I don't know - it's one of the only ways I can increase my own vocabulary. Whenever I read a book or article, if the author uses a word that I'm unsure of, I hit the dictionary straight away and find out what it means.
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i'm with you on this. not all people are interested in learning something new though.
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#11
Jun 30, 2005
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#11
Mr. Rictus said:
Intelligent people use "big words" because they are the best for getting the message across. Sure they can dumb things down, but we have big words for a reason. Intelligent people use them at specific times for specific reasons. Being concise doesn't have anything to do with the size of words.

People who over use "big words" or use "big words" to impress could be intelligent, but they are also arrogant.
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True. "Big words" are usually terms with very specific meaning that often substitute for whole paragraphs of explaining. They exist for a reason (excluding post-modernism). Also, blaming people who use "big words" for doing so is a form of anti-intellectualism. It is nobody else's fault other than your own that you vocabulary is poor and that you are too lazy to expand it.
 
marty50

marty50

Sicc OG
#15
Jul 6, 2008
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#15
the most intelligent beings use signs and not language to get they point across.

i remember a space explorer that was shot off into space past our solar system, and it had 3 symbols on it, an atomic structure, a da vinci human being icon, and the sun and 3 planets, with the last one being earth. to let any beings no who we are, that we udnerstand the atomic structre and what our location is within the galaxy.

symbols are so much easier to understand than words. look at asian culture for how they write numbers and words, it thru symbols. its just easier to look at a symbol and understand it than to read across a word, letter by letter.
 
Dhadnot

Dhadnot

Sicc OG
#16
Feb 7, 2006
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#16
Why do "intelligent" people use big words?

ver. 1 They be usin big words cuz they fucks with milipedes not rolli pollis ya dig, real soil for ya ass?

ver. 2 They're scrupulous, that's why.
 
marty50

marty50

Sicc OG
#17
Jul 6, 2008
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#17
Hutch said:
I love it when I read words whose definition I don't know - it's one of the only ways I can increase my own vocabulary. Whenever I read a book or article, if the author uses a word that I'm unsure of, I hit the dictionary straight away and find out what it means.

And I agree with most of the posters on this thread - using 'big words' isn't a tactic intelligent people use to dumbfound people with an opposing viewpoint (although it can be - usually only if their argument rests on pillars of salt though). Rather, obscure words can have very precise meanings which often fit a specific situation, so using 'big words' can greatly increase the conciceness of a statement (e.g. White Devil's 'circumlocution' - the definition of which I didn't know.... till now. Cheers :p).
Click to expand...
thats cool man, i read this medical dictionary to find out about symptoms and ailments, and they will throw in other medical word jargon, and it will get me going to the page that the jargon is on, and so on and so on to other pages. but i read it b4 sleep, but it keeps me interested in the body,

it reminds of those adventure books, where if you want to know what happens next either turn to this page or to this other page.
 
Stealth

Stealth

Join date: May '98
#20
May 8, 2002
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#20
marty50 said:
symbols are so much easier to understand than words. look at asian culture for how they write numbers and words, it thru symbols. its just easier to look at a symbol and understand it than to read across a word, letter by letter.
Click to expand...
I'm reading a book right now called The History of Knowledge. You happened to touch on something I was reading like a week ago:

"Not all writing is alphabetical. Chinese writing is not alphabetical. This was also true of ancient Egyptian, ancient Sumerian, even ancient Hebrew. Languages like Chinese and Japanese are highly expressive but hard to write down unambiguously. Alphabetical languages like Greek, Latin, German and English, to name a few, possess a clarity when written that no other kinds of languages have."
 
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