This isn't about the word of the day, but the usage example. "Is Alain de Botton the biggest pseud and poseur..." Pseud??? I can see where it came from, but I've never seen it before. Anyone else?

BTW, maybe a poseur is one who uses words like poseur.

So...whats it about then?? Pseud?
I often hear words being abbreviated in common use/by people who want to appear 'cool'....pseud or pseudo = false.

Yep, I've heard it used, but only informally as a (sort of) abbreviation, turned into a noun.

surprisingly, dates from 1964!

British
: a person who pretends to be an intellectual
short for pseudo-intellectual
First Known Use: 1964
[M-W 11th}

edit: and, of course, OED has the apposite citation..

1964 Spectator 20 Mar. 379/1 The pseuds and intellectual craze-mongers seem to have dropped cinéma-vérité almost as quickly as they took it up.

but it was adjectivized even earlier..

1962 Spectator 26 Oct. 656 Present-day trend-setters, pseud as they come.