100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
by Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries
Published by Houghton Mifflin
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Connie Anderson
True, these 100 words in the book may make me sound smart, but I wonder if I use them in writing to the eighth-grade-reading-level public, will I make them feel stupid?
A book I read recently said that we are to write to that reading level, not because our reader's ability, but because today people are sssssoooooo busy and stressed they don't want to take the time to read "harder," higher-level words.
I was thrilled that a writer/editor of other people's words, I knew every single one. So now let's see how many of those 100 words I can use in a sentence (do I need a hobby, or what?)
The lurid (explicit/vivid) paradox (contradict) is insidious (treacherous), making me peevish (irritable) in that it is Spartan (simple manner) and without stigma (disgrace), but is also stoic (show no emotion), ostentatious (pretentious), and fastidious (attention to detail)--a dichotomy (divided into two parts) that is a red herring (draws attention from matter at hand) that is 100 percent non sequitur (does not follow logically).
So there. Writers and readers, if you can catch an idiosyncratic word (peculiar to a specific group), write me at P.O. Box _____.
Armchair Interviews says: The 100 Words That Make You Sound Smart would be a fun gift for anyone, including you--because anything that can make you sound smart can't be all bad. You think?