4 ms·

Having worked in consulting and government, I think it's just that many of those words have a slight connotation of pretension, like the writer is choosing word

Having worked in consulting and government, I think it's just that many of those words have a slight connotation of pretension, like the writer is choosing words to sound smart. It's very subtle and in many cases probably not worth banning, but prohibition has the side effect of forcing people to think about what they're trying to write rather than just regurgitate pre-made phrases. Another subtlety in English is that words with Germanic roots feel more direct and simple while those with Latin roots feel flowery and pretentious so the former are often preferred. E.g. ask/inquire, answer/response. It's not always true, and some words may still be out of date. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Germanic_and_Latinate_equivalents_in_English https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Germanic_and_Latinat...

rikroots 4y ago
I worked in the UK Civil service for a long while. The language barrier back in the late 1980s was a real thing[1]. While I had good English skills, I had never made it to university - unlike most of my colleagues. Oxbridge alumni were (still are?) over-represented, and the language I heard/had to learn felt very academic at times. Heck, when I started some of the Senior SC were still adding comments to minutes in Latin! The Plain English campaign - whose work has been excellent over the decades - and diversity in CS hiring, have hopefully broken the worst parts of the language barrier. [1] - silly example: while most of the office-working world would write a "memo", in CS Jargonese it was a "minute". To this day I have no idea why the distinction was important.
- macintux 4y ago
  Thank you for sharing that, it’s a fascinating insight.
torben-friis 4y ago
> Another subtlety in English is that words with Germanic roots feel more direct and simple while those with Latin roots feel flowery and pretentious so the former are often preferred. Ooh, That might explain why it was hard for me to understand! I'm a Spaniard, so latin-derived words are usually familiar. That's what's keeping me from perceiving them as literary, since their Spanish counterpart is in my 'common speech register', so to speak.

rikroots 4y ago

I worked in the UK Civil service for a long while. The language barrier back in the late 1980s was a real thing[1]. While I had good English skills, I had never made it to university - unlike most of my colleagues. Oxbridge alumni were (still are?) over-represented, and the language I heard/had to learn felt very academic at times. Heck, when I started some of the Senior SC were still adding comments to minutes in Latin! The Plain English campaign - whose work has been excellent over the decades - and diversity in CS hiring, have hopefully broken the worst parts of the language barrier. [1] - silly example: while most of the office-working world would write a "memo", in CS Jargonese it was a "minute". To this day I have no idea why the distinction was important.

macintux 4y ago
Thank you for sharing that, it’s a fascinating insight.

torben-friis 4y ago

> Another subtlety in English is that words with Germanic roots feel more direct and simple while those with Latin roots feel flowery and pretentious so the former are often preferred. Ooh, That might explain why it was hard for me to understand! I'm a Spaniard, so latin-derived words are usually familiar. That's what's keeping me from perceiving them as literary, since their Spanish counterpart is in my 'common speech register', so to speak.