Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for June 22, 2018

Expanding one’s vocabulary sure can be a double-edged sword.

Alright – I had to look it up. And it fits.

I worked a short time managing the Yahoo! India website, which was outsourced to our company and found that the so-called supervising team from Yahoo! did not have much of a vocabulary!

Sometimes I use a big word with friends and I get the look. Then I take 5 minutes to explain it. I didn’t want to do that which is why I used the word. It makes you feel using the word was floccinaucinihilipilificated.

To make it easy: Calumniator: Refers to defamation….communication of a false statement that, depending on the law of the country, harms the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.

One day when I was about 8 and my older brother was torturing me (as older brothers do), I kept telling him “stop, stop!” and it wasn’t working, so I switched and said, “Desist!” It made him laugh so hard that he stopped tickling me and I was able to get away. Sometimes having a large vocabulary is a good defense strategy.

My brother had memorized a list of very unusual, multi-syllabic words that he could throw around and make people think he was intelligent. Instead, they just thought he was an a-hole. Could never quite get him to realize that.

I use “antidisestablishmentarianism” a lot…whether it fits or not…

Maybe that’s why ‘bigly smart’ Crooked Donny “knows the words. I have the best words…” has stumped so many people with the word covfefe

Gracie is anaspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused Baldo such pericombobulation.

I agree with Baldo. Why use a prolix word when a diminutive one will suffice?

My brother used to always use big words to try to impress people. My thoughts were if they do not understand what you were saying then you are not communicating and you are not being smart.

My 2 1/2 World Country, Ecuador has a 94.35% literacy rate based on 2016 statistics.

Here’s a few statistics for you in the U.S. to chew on based on the same time period:

1. 32 million adults can not read in the United States equal to 14% of the population.

2. 21% of US adults read below the 5th grade level.

3. 19% of high school graduates can not read.

4. 85% of juveniles who interact with the juvenile court system are considered functionally illiterate.

5. 70% of inmates in America’s prisons can not read above the fourth grade level.

The secret of communication is to be understood. To be understood, you must use language that your audience can understand. Never use a long, complex word when a short simple word will do the job.

I read the World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, both volumes, when I was 9 (compulsive reader). When I was in my 30s, I spent a week cheerfully referring to a coworker as a microencephalic jackanapes with a pleasant smile on my face. Then some spoilsport looked it up in a good dictionary and told him I’d been calling him a pinhead clown all week – the guy had the nerve to get mad and claimed that I couldn’t call him that! After a week of no complaints, too.

I drove a bus 29 yrs for NYCTA..my boss one day asked me how come I never got complaints sent in on me. I told him I used the dictionary to insult nasty customers and the majority of them had no idea,what was said about em or bothered to find out the words meant…..

Sign in my freshman English classroom: “Eschew Obfuscation!”