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Everest's avatar

Why are people so d** wordy on sites and here?

Asked by Everest (318points) March 7th, 2010

What the point of all the words?! Why the big words? Only alien brainers can get most of them. The age limit is 13! Why can’t people say what they means in one sentence! Why paragraphs with 10 trilion words? Why does something plane need to be made into an essay? Why, why, why??

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79 Answers

TexasDude's avatar

Our verbosity exemplifies our own self-assigned pretenses of inflated intelligence we derive from our collective educated, middle class, semi-bourgeoisie existences. secretly, we all cry inside

ArtiqueFox's avatar

Small words are boring. Big words are fun. :)

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard :), speak for yourself
to the OP: it’s not on purpose – people talk and express themselves differently…many subjects have a vocabulary that goes with them.

Sarcasm's avatar

They have lots of thoughts.
I’m not sure what you mean by “age limit”. Perhaps you mean the age * minimum*? If the age limit is 13, I guess I need to be banned.

If you don’t like all the words, don’t read them. Simple.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Sarcasm I agree. If I wanted to make myself understandable to a 13 year old, I would – that, however, is not my intention.

mammal's avatar

@Everest What the point of all the words?! i’m all for economy of words but that phrase would be in desperate need of an is placed after the What for linguistic satisfaction. :)

Everest's avatar

@Sarcasm Kids of 13 years can join. That’s a laugh cause most kids wouldn’t understand half of whats on her.

@mammal Language is work, work an work.

mammal's avatar

@Everest yes it is, it requires application, bit like climbing Everest, hopefully the view from the summit was worth the effort :)

Violet's avatar

People here smart. Lots of brain.

Everest's avatar

@Violet Ug. Me no get. Me lost “here.” What that?

@mammal Maybe someday I’ll see the light. Someday.

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

Really? (lol)

Violet's avatar

Fluther has a certain standard: “Well-written, genuine questions provoke the best and most thoughtful answers. Obviously, make sure you spell-check, try to use proper capitalization and grammar, and select appropriate topics.” that is explained in their Guidelines

PandoraBoxx's avatar

Self moderated.

jrpowell's avatar

I’m incredibly lazy and look at my keyboard when I type. I make it a point to use as few words as possible.

Violet's avatar

Are you 13+?

mammal's avatar

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a whole book – what everyone else does not say in a whole book.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

And what are alien brainers anyway? Can a vegan eat them?

Everest's avatar

@Violet 2.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir brain is meat, so better not ta try.

Violet's avatar

Was that a typo? Did you mean to say 12?

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Everest well, maybe alien ones aren’t made of meat? how do you know?

Everest's avatar

@Violet Prodigy 2 year old. Surely your all seeing eye can see that.

Depends on the alien. Might be cytoplasm. Would you eat organelles?

Sarcasm's avatar

@Violet I figured she meant 13+2, 15.

Everest's avatar

@Sarcasm You have lost the 10 pound prize. Trys again.

Sarcasm's avatar

I lost 10 pounds? ahh, new years resolution achieved.

Violet's avatar

My guess is still 12, or may be 13?

TexasDude's avatar

I’m tripping balls now. I have no idea what’s going on.

Violet's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard we are trying to guess Everest’s age

TexasDude's avatar

14. I’m almost positive.

Everest's avatar

Lower, ppl, lower.

Violet's avatar

@Everest the age limit of use fluther is 13

Everest's avatar

I am flattered by the attention, but surely you have something beter to do?

Violet's avatar

removed by me

gemiwing's avatar

I like big words and I cannot lie. You other brothers can’t deny. When a word’s typed in with Fluther type-face with linguistics that are ace- I get sprung. Wanna pull up tough, cuz you know without words you’re fucked.

KatawaGrey's avatar

We are so wordy because sometime you need to be wordy to get your point across. Also, let’s face it, many of us on here are naturally loquacious and educated enough to know what words like “loquacious” mean so why should we talk less just satisfy you? Maybe you should write lengthier responses and increase your vocabulary to please us.

Of course I don’t actually think you should do that just as I don’t think the rest of us should have to dumb down our responses just to make you happy. Sure, there are many words that in the barest sense mean the same thing but they all have different nuances and can be used in different situations to mean different things.

@gemiwing: That made me laugh. :)

rangerr's avatar

Why does something plane need to be made into an essay?

lol4rl.

syz's avatar

Wait. So you’re saying that we should write to the lowest common denominator? Dumb down? Hold back? Restrain ourselves from using vocabulary?

Wow.

KatawaGrey's avatar

@syz: Hey! You could have summed up that entire answer with just “wow.” What’s wrong with you?~

syz's avatar

@KatawaGrey I thought about it.

PandoraBoxx's avatar

“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.

“I do,” Alice hastily replied; “At least – at least I mean what I say – that’s the same thing, you know.”

“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”

“You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “That ‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!”

“You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, “That ‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”

liminal's avatar

It is how some people around fluther roll.

Trillian's avatar

So, a new person to the site wants to come along and tell everyone here how to write. Nice.
Ok, everyone, now hear this. We must eschew obfuscation!
Everyone get out your cell phones and type misspelled words and abbreviations.

malevolentbutticklish's avatar

Brevity is the soul of wit.

snowberry's avatar

I’d like to know why you’re here, if you don’t like wordy answers. After all, you have over 40 answers so far, and everyone of them have words. That’s pretty wordy right there.

Were you joking when you typed up all that nonsense you call a question? This type of question is why we send our kids to school. Go do your homework, son. It’s late.

KatawaGrey's avatar

What I want to know is what “d**” means…

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@KatawaGrey I’m thinking damn but who knows

Trillian's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir & @KatawaGrey, it means darn, ding, dang.~

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Trillian that is too many words – you’re out.

Violet's avatar

@KatawaGrey lol, me too! I thought she was trying to say dick, but she was one * short

MissAnthrope's avatar

Oh, @Everest, Everest, Everest. Your question makes me forlorn. Language is fun, diverse, and enjoyable!

Words to a language lover are like paint to an artist. You may say something is blue, but the artist would tell you it’s azure. It is the same with language. Different words carry different nuances. To a wordsmith, it’s incredibly satisfying to land on just the right word to describe a thought or idea.

Also, an extensive vocabulary is a fairly reliable mark of an intelligent person. We have some very intelligent people here; this ain’t no Yahoo Answers, my friend.

If you can’t understand something, might I suggest this amazing book called a dictionary? In addition, it probably wouldn’t hurt for you to read more; I’ve been reading since I was about 3 and this is where I picked up the majority of my vocabulary. You will most likely want to expand your vocabulary if you hope to do well on the SATs (you’ll be up against words like triscadecaphobia, truculent, and I can’t remember what else because that was like 300 years ago).

augustlan's avatar

We have quite a few members who are very intelligent kids of 13, 14 and 15 years old. They don’t seem to have any trouble understanding us. Some of them have better writing skills than most adults!

Trillian's avatar

@Everest Let’s further break this down. (I’ll bet you would have spelled it brake)
1. “What the point of all the words?” Correction – what’s/what is.
2. “Why can’t people say what they means in one sentence!” Correction – say what they mean . And since this is a question, as in “An interrogative statement designed to gather information”, you should have ended it with this- ? Not this- !
3. “Why does something plane” correction – plain
Do you not see that you are the one with the problem? I wish you had more enjoyment from reading, it would open so many vistas for you. You truly do not know what you are missing.

KatawaGrey's avatar

@augustlan: I know you’re not talking about your daughter. ;)

augustlan's avatar

@KatawaGrey Two of my daughters are members! :D

KatawaGrey's avatar

@augustlan: Haha, right, and they are both wonderful and smart, though admittedly I only see mangeons, and I do love her. :)

Arisztid's avatar

I am a compulsive verbal packrat and purchase words at a huge discount at the Word Dollar Store. I cannot help myself… when I see a sale on polysyllabic words, I just have to buy.

If I did not use them, they would just clog my mind. Hence, my verbose posts. I have to get them out somewhere.

Oh were you aiming for “d***”, with three asterisks? You are missing an asterisk.

Jeruba's avatar

@Arisztid, you can have ‘grandiloquent” and ‘sesquipedalian’ for a quarter. ‘Steatopygous’ and ‘irremediable’ are going for fifty cents, and ‘omphaloskepsis’ is going to cost you a dollar.

‘Anthropomorphism’ and ‘prestidigitation’ are this week’s bargains, and bottom-of-the-barrel ‘defenestrate’ is free.

“d**” is probably “dam.”

Arisztid's avatar

@Jeruba Being “dam” would not surprise me one little bit. Amuse, yes, surprise… no.

Deal! Omphaloskepsis is definitely worth a dollar especially since so many people engage in that practice. I shall definitely have use for it. I shall take them all!

Check is in the mail.

Jeruba's avatar

Cleaned me out, @Arisztid. I am now stuck with words of one syl—oops, of one short part ‘til new stock comes in.

Arisztid's avatar

@Jeruba I shall be waiting with baited breath <<cough, takes fish out of mouth>>

Thammuz's avatar

Because we can. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

JeffVader's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million time…. you are the man!

TexasDude's avatar

Thanks Clov ;-)

Dr_Dredd's avatar

Agree with @Simone_De_Beauvoir. The point of this site isn’t to appeal to 13 year olds. They’re welcome, but they’re not the raison d’etre.

MissAnthrope's avatar

I am still waiting to find out what an “alien brainer” is.

CyanoticWasp's avatar

Had I but words enough and time (and hadn’t already seen @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard‘s lovely and well-crafted and first response) then I would have typed (I like “penned” better, but the word’s falling out of use nowadays, since I ‘pen’ so little, my little dorg in the back yard excepted… but I especially like it because it’s another verbed noun) a response along the same lines as his, sans some of the high-falutin’ verbiage, but cum some Latin and French stuff.

I also would have worked in the word “ennui” somewhere after “bourgeois”, but I can’t deny that his answer is lovely and desurves all the lurve it attracts. A masterful response, indeed.

I’m sorry. What was the question, again? I got carried away.

Jeruba's avatar

@MissAnthrope, the OP defined it for us: it’s someone who can get most of the big words. In other words, we are alien brainers. To @Everest. Self-evidently.

@Arisztid, new shipments delivered fresh daily along with the bait. I knew that last night, of course. That affectation of dearth was just a little prestidigitation and not an irremediable condition. I wouldn’t really run out of sesquipedialian words; that would be as bad for my grandiloquence as omphaloskepsis is for my steatopygy, and I would have to defenestrate myself.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Jeruba sounds dirty, can I watch?

Jeruba's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir, only if you can figure out how to get ‘anthropomorphism’ into that sentence.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Jeruba I can get many things into things – do you want it in your sentence or in mine?

Jeruba's avatar

One of yours or one of mine, @Simone_De_Beauvoir, as long as the rest of that lot is there too. If I’d been a little more clever I would have pulled out a list of fancy words last night that would fit into one sentence today. I seldom manage to plan ahead as well as that.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Jeruba surely and thankfully you have better things to do.

Jeruba's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir, if we think we can imagine the full scope of what constitutes ’fun’ for one another, I am sure we will all be mistaken.

Axemusica's avatar

@Jeruba “Defenestrate” one of my favorite words as wee lad, that brings back memories. I think I’ll begin utilizing it once more, ;) . I’ve always enjoyed confusing people. Hence why I put abstract thinking as one of fields of expertise.

@Everest you can haz chezburgr, if can I haz frys.

snowberry's avatar

Hey, I know someone we can defenestrate right now! I’ll open the window, and you toss!

Captain_Fantasy's avatar

It’s a side effect resultant from going to school for 16 years and interacting with adults.

snowberry's avatar

@Captain Fantasy, I don’t think so. If that were true, all kids would turn out as silly as this one is.

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