No sooner did I pick up my own employer's Bureaucracy Handbook than my eye fell on a delicious example of the above. As soon as I had my eye popped back into place, I read the following aloud to anyone who would listen:
We are all too familiar with this particular mode. We live in a world in which the killing of a spy is the elimination with extreme prejudice of an intelligence-gathering operative. And in this world we secretly think that if all periphrasis could be eliminated, bereaucracy would wither away, along with its academic handmaidens, the social sciences. We needed to be reminded, therefore, that legitimate uses of periphrasis do exist (such as substituting "academic handmaidens of bureaucracy" for "social sciences" in order to contribute to their elimination with extreme prejudice).
If "engage in teaching" means anything more than "teach", it implies that the teaching motor is always humming. Sometimes we just let it hum while we do other things, but sometimes we drop it into gear and engage that source of power. I knew a fellow once who walked into a classroom and carelessly dropped his teaching directly into fourth gear; he nearly plastered himself across the whiteboard. Be careful when you engage your teaching: that thing's not a toy!
"Faculty" refers to those who engage in teaching during the school year and activities directly related thereunto.
Maybe the Duck can tell me the name for a one-word periphrasis, where you use a much bigger word than is needed. The plague in this category is "utilize". I have never heard a case where it could not be replaced with "use"; people just want to utilize bigger words to sound importantatious.
In theory, of course, "utilize" could mean "make useful", as "sterilize" means "make sterile". That is the dictionary definition, but in the common and usual circumstances of every day locution the item or term in question is periphrastisized for maximal utilization of vocabulary and linguistic resources.
5 comments:
Is "sesquipedalian" the word you're looking for? (Or "sesquipedality"?)
Bunthorne,
That, my friend, is a great word.
Ray Gunner,
I'd use hyperbole first, used in the general sense of one of the figural vices of 'excess or superfluity'. But I think you want more specific words...
If the intended meaning is that the person is using longer words to sound more important, educated or in the inner ring of academicians, I think 'bomphiologia' AKA 'verborum bombus'is the concept. . Current company excluded, of course.
I have a particular problem with this sort of excessive "vocabulary utilization." Often, when I go back through my pieces to cut out the extra fat, I catch a lot of them. But many remain behind, I'm sure.
I think I'm doing it to sound smarter than I am...
Sesquipedalian and bomphiologia are both terrific words. They are onomatopoeic, in a sense, because sesquipedalian is itself a foot and a half long while only a bombastic speaker would use a word like bomphiologia.
That is, unless the speaker were given to quasi-onomatopoeic humor.
Interesting note: 'sesquipedalian' is the word of the day today at http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/
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