Do You Still Use Simple Words?

The Thinker's Thesaurus: Sophisticated Alternatives to Common Words
by Peter E. Meltzer

Why use a simple word or phrase to make your point when a "sophisticated" word is at hand.

That's always been my mantra no matter what the pundits may say about the need to use simple words for effective communication.

Why pander to the village yokel when you can raise the standards of the entire village. Further, would so called difficult or sophisticated words have been coined if they were not meant to be used?

It was with that frame of mind that I purchased The Thinker's Thesaurus (2015 Edition) by Peter E. Meltzer more than a decade back.

To describe The Thinker's Thesaurus as a treasure trove would be an understatement. Surely, it's not the hyperbole of metaphors to describe the book as the Mt. Everest of treats for logophiles.

Over the years, I have been dipping into the 648-page book on and off.

Not surprisingly, both in writing and speech and to the vexation of readers, friends and family members alike, I now use expressions like Potemkin village (instead of illusion), egesta (for excrement, shit), gemütlich (in place of cozy), Prufockian (for cowardly, timid), persnickety (in place of fussy), melomaniac (for music-lover), kerfuffle (for disturbance), concupiscent (instead of erotic), illecebrous (for alluring, attractive), and contumelious (for belittling).

When my friend's son whines over the presence of a wee bit of cream forming at the top of his tea, I admonish him: "Don't be persnickety and drink your tea fast."

Since there’s always the possibility of an oddball who might know schadenfreude (joy in the misfortune of others), I’ve lately banished that German word in favor of its sophisticated synonym, epicaricacy . After all, even India’s English language maven Shashi Tharoor has on more than occasion expressed a fondness for epicaricacy in print (see Chapter 4 of his book A Wonderland of Words) and online (search for Shashi Tharoor and epicaricacy).

Here are a few sophisticated words from The Thinker's Thesaurus to whet your appetite:

• Xanthippe: shrew (Xanthippe was Socrates’ wife and believed to be quite a shrew)
• Valhalla: shrine
• Busty: bathycolpian
• Atrabilious: short-tempered
• Booboisie: ignorant
• Schlemiel: habitual bumbler
• Steatopygic: having a fat rear end
• Orchidectomy: castration

So it's with schwӓrmerei that I recommend The Thinker's Thesaurus to all of you.

If nothing else, this tome will make for a comfortable pillow on your next camping trip.

Since The Thinker's Thesaurus costs over $40 for a new copy, I suggest you get an used one for $7 on auction sites.