Sounds Pretentious to Me...

There is a statement made by many people (Including myself!) that is not necessarily pretentious but I do find interesting and that is "To be honest" and "Honestly speaking....." It's as if we are actualling telling untruths every time we DON'T say this and you can only trust what we are saying 100% the times we DO! lol. As I have said I do it myself all the time! I wonder why we do this?

I agree with you on the word gourmet... I really despise that word and I cringe whenever I have to use it. Which I think has only been a couple of times in my life. One of those times (maybe both) was here on MyLot in fact. My sister and I are both very good cooks, and enjoy preparing meals that would be served in a, ahem, fine dining establishment, hehehe, often using exotic and hard to find ingredients. I could say we are epicures, gastronomes, or bon vivants, but any of those words is just as pretentious sounding and does not work to well when you are saying 'we are bon vivant cooks'. I know I have other words I find as pretentious... and my mother uses most of them, but the only ones that are coming to my mind right now, and probably because they are at the TOP of my list, are the words dear, sweetie, and honey... ESPECIALLY when they are used to address someone you don't even know!!!!

Sisi, I do feel that gourmet is much overstated. I think its one of the words that I have come across in old archaic English as well. But with the evolution of the language some words as this one did not go under scissors (if that at all that makes any sense). And you rightly said, it certainly requires retiring. Foodie is much better, isn't it? Eclectic however, has a wider spectrum and is being used for different varied context and I do not have much problem. Actually I quite like the unique way of putting it even in the weirdest of places. I just like to share that in the current book (Nineteen Eighty Four) I have been reading, the dictionary was given new perspective altogether. Like the author harps on the using less nouns. Like instead of bad it would be not good and so on... Thanks. PS: this is a great disc, BTW!

I don't really think about gourmet or eclectic. I hate the word surreal. That one makes me cringe.

hi there... hahhaha...well put... hmmm... i guess, i am not in ur hit list then... hahahaha... i usually use other words like myriad, etc. etc.... happy mylotting...

I'm one who uses eclectic to describe my own tastes because it's easier than saying, "I have a variety of tastes and don't focus on any one of them." Like the way I decorate....I'd call it "Early Poverty" with touches of the Southwest (I love native American pottery and art work) as well as kitty collectibles and a cat valance across the windows. Nothing matches, yet it's who I am. Eclectic. I don't think it's pretentious. It's just a verbally economic word.

Every word has its purpose. I like to use simple words rather than bombastic words. In this way, most of the people I talk to will understand what I'm saying. My work requires me to communicate with people all the time. It's important that what I say is being Understood. I have no issues with that 2 words if they are used correctly. However, more often than not, people use it wrongly (especially the word eclectic).

hi saint anne, I too dislike eclectic as it to me just means a' mixed up jumble of furniture made okay by calling it eclectic. in any other words it would just be a messy room setting. as for gourmet that is a good word if used properly. but so many things called gourmet are really greatly exaggerated good food tu not gourmet. to me gourmet means super duper really great food.I would rather just say this meal was the best I have ever eaten and I know good food.

For me, my pet peeve word is a non-standard word that WAY too many people use. "Irregardless" THAT one drives me nuts! It drives me crazy because of the double negative. From dictionary.com: Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so. Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elements ir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps popularized by its use in a comic radio program of the 1930s. "Regardless" means: [b]1. having or showing no regard; heedless; unmindful (often fol. by of). –adverb 2. without concern as to advice, warning, hardship, etc.; anyway: I must make the decision regardless. —Idiom 3. regardless of, in spite of; without regard for: They'll do it regardless of the cost. [/b] So by saying "irregardless".. you are saying "regardless", just adding an extra syllable, therefor wasting a half of a breath. Another one is "a whole nother" don't even get me started on THAT one. OK rant over.. lol Interesting discussion!

Saviour-V teleports in... I suppose I'm the only person who uses the term "electri-fried" when speaking about something that's just been roasted with an electric shock or something to that effect. And I happen to be guilty of creating my own acronyms on occasion - "RLTW" for "run like the wind", and "R-squared LTW" for "running like the wind", for instance. On the days when I happen to be quite sane, you might not hear those. If I start panicking and cursing, you might hear some rather interesting words and phrases that you'd never find in any ol' English dictionary. Heh heh. Saviour-V grins, and teleports out...

Isn't it funny how the word pretentious even sounds pretentious? I completely understand where you are coming from with the word "eclectic." They might as well be saying "My tastes are original and therefore better than yours." As for my personal pet peeves, I really dislike the word "tote" for some reason. I had a friend once that would always say things like "Could you tote that bag for me?" I hated that. Why not just say carry? Anyway, I also don't like it when people say "cut out the light". What are they cutting? Just say turn it off! /sigh. I guess those are more phrases than just single words that bother me.

Nice discussion! Anyway there are a lot of words that I want to limit people from using always: Utilize, Paradigm, Resources, Processes and a lot of other fancy words used in dealing with clients. I would like to site this classic from Dilbert "I am UTILIZING this multi-tine tool to PROCESS this Starch RESOURCE" Translation: I'm using this fork to eat a potato. I mean business people could live too with simple words right?

Hey my buddie! What's wrong? Are you a gourmet cook with eclectic taste? I'm sorry, just couldn't help myself! You can retire both those words, works for me! At least they didn't say eccentric! You know, this got me to thinking about the dictionary. I haven't seen a new one in ages. I guess it must be pretty heavy these days! Probably weighs quite a few pounds, what's your guess? I don't have such brilliant friends so I can tell you none of them use any of those words, well may one might! My bf still says worser afer my correcting him over and over so that's what I'm dealing with! The word that people use to describe my taste is usually unique and I'm happy with that word! It truly encompasses it all! I have a brain fog as to what words I'd like to elimiate right now so whatever you want is ok by me!