Vocabulary lessons can be didactic

The first newspaper editor I had as a cub reporter in the late 1970s always encouraged us to use “big” words in our stories.

“I love to send people scurrying to the dictionary,” she told us on more than one occasion.

I remember this so clearly because it was contradictory to what we were taught in college, which was to write stories that could be understood by a broad cross-section of readers. The rule of thumb was to write to an eighth-grade level.

I suppose I tried to toss in a few bigger words to appease my editor; I do remember using “camaraderie” in an article about hot-air ballooning and thinking it was pretty cool I pulled that word out of who knows where. That was one I had to look up at the time.

For the most part, though, I wrote what felt comfortable. I still do, though I’m sure my own vocabulary has expanded through the years.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the editors of the trademarked American Heritage dictionaries, recently added a new title to its best-selling 100 Words series — “100 Words to Make You Sound Smart.” I was pleasantly surprised to find I know what most of those 100 “smart” words mean, and have used many of them in my writing.

Camaraderie was on the list.

Here’s a sampler of those carefully selected 100 words for those who want “to sound sharp, sophisticated and in the know,” according to the 100 Words publisher. Accolade, acrimony, bourgeois and charisma are on the list. So are esoteric, faux pas, hedonist, insidious and narcissist. Precocious, scintillating, tirade and ubiquitous also made the cut.

I’ll admit a few of the 100 words sent me “scurrying” to the dictionary, and yes, I’m old school and still use my old hard-cover Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

I didn’t know the definition of fait accompli. It means a thing accomplished and presumably irreversible. Sycophant was another one that stumped me — it’s a self-seeking flatterer.

Machiavellian is another of those big words that’s always fuzzy for me, though I often hear it used when people talk about politics. Perhaps that’s because it refers to conduct marked by cunning, duplicity or bad faith.

A major online news magazine recently asked its Facebook fans to name the words they think make people sound smart. Fans came up with several words I use occasionally: beleaguered, plethora, exacerbate and oxymoron. But there were plenty of words I had to admit I didn’t know: anathema, ennui, quixotic and verisimilitude.

It used to be that Reader’s Digest was the place to go to learn new words; its regular vocabulary section always caught my attention. These days, of course, the world of words is just a mouse click away. Google “words that make you sound smart” and you’ll get a plethora, yes, a plethora of resources. My favorite was “Eight Old-Fashioned Words That Make You Sound Smart,” which featured gems such as “jollux,” 18th century slang for a fat person, and “sanguinolency,” an addiction to bloodshed.

I could go on and on about words that fascinate me, but I don’t want to become an anathema, which I now know is someone intensely disliked or loathed.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.