Why use a big word when a little one will do?

When I was a young man growing up, I knew a lot of very smart people. Most of the people that I knew worked as skilled laborers. Either in the woods, the sawmills or in ranching. Most of the old timers had a “homestead” a lot like Old MacDonald’s farm. They built their own houses and grew their own food. Most of them thought that was the way it was supposed to be. When something needed to be done they did it themselves. If they needed a gate hinge or a latch, they found a scrap of iron and heated and pounded on it until it was a hinge or a latch. They probably would have preferred to just buy one, but they thought that was a frivolous waste of money, so they made most of the things that they needed out of the scrap pile. If you visit any of the old ranches around here, you will still find a lot of old hand forged iron laying around, or still in use.

Most of the old timers never had a chance to finish school, but most of them had some kind of a rudimentary education, so they could read and write. The more valuable things that they knew were taught to them by their ancestors. The most remarkable thing that you would readily notice is that they were very adept at the things that they did. What they lacked in education, they more than made up for in skill.

A remarkable thing about them is that they could talk about very complicated tasks that they were performing, and teach you how to do it with great ease. It always amazed me how they used simple words to explain the most detailed task. Most of the old-timers used lots of hand gestures and detailed “show and tell.” It was always plainly obvious what they were detailing.

As kids will do from time to time I would use a word a little to “big” for them. They would admonish me that I shouldn’t use words that I couldn’t spell, and ask me to say it some other way that made more sense. Sometimes they would know the word that I was using, but they were wise enough to know that if there was big word that somebody might not understand that it wasn’t fair to use them, especially when a few simple word will serve as well. Every time that I arrogantly think of using big words, I think of those wise old timers, the wisest people that I ever knew, and chose to use simpler phraseology. I normally would have ended that sentence with “wording” in the place of “phraseology”. See how easy it is to use simple words.

So, I gained a habit of avoiding confusing words whenever I can. I get a lot better results. Plus, I have the added benefit  of having people understand what I’m trying to say. Well… sometimes.

But, just between you and me I like a few big words, ones that explain things better than all the little words that you could ever conjure. Words like “esoteric”, which means: “restricted to initiates: intended for or understood by only an initiated few” See my little pun? But, I know that is a word that would never have been heard around my people. Most people today readily understand that word, but I would imagine that there are a few people today that wouldn’t.

“Euphemistically” is another common word that would leave a few people out of the conversation. It means: “to avoid saying or writing something direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive by using milder or more indirect language ”, The word “nicely” would work nicely in it’s place. A euphemism is just a nice way of saying things.

When somebody starts using a lot of big words around me, I immediately start sensing a snow job and listen very carefully. I read a lot, and knowing the big words helps you to understand some writers, and it helps you to follow most conversations, but it seems to me that people that use the biggest words are using their higher education to cover the fact that they don’t know diddly-poop. See? All my folks know diddly-poop, I don’t have to explain that!

Most of the folks that I grew up around never used the word “were”. The word “was” was used for were and was. A kid could have been snickered out of town for using a word like “whom”. Who the heck did a person think they were use high-fallutin” words like “whom”.

So, just for grins, what’s your favorite “Big words” that should be banned from the English language? Or better yet, What words should be words that aren’t? I run into those all the time.
Like the inverse of the word “inverse” should be outverse Right?