Today I decided that my newly-elected favorite word could easily be overused. It's a popular word in my vocabulary, but over-dependence on it word makes one guilty (or at least liable for accusation) of, well, pretense. So I turned to my trusty thesaurus, which I impulsively purchased last year while reading about law schools. Anyway, you can read the accolades at Meltzer's website, read the theory behind the book at the publishers website, and reader's reviews at Amazon.Anyway, back to pretentious. It's that word I want to use all the time, but can't because I've already used it recently. Probably we critical people who enjoy disparaging others like it more than the average person. So I decided to diversify my literary arsenal. Here's the fruit of my labour...
Pretentious
(as in pompous) adj: flatulent
(speech or writing) adj: fustian
(person on issues of grammar) n: grammaticaster
(self-important person or official) n: high muck-a-muck; hoity-toity; panjandrum
(esp. regarding speaking or writing style) adj: magniloquent, orotund
(pretentious but superficial knowledge of a subject) n: sciolism
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