Not as I do. The lead article in The Vocabula Review discusses the use of foreign words and phrases. Then uses a nice but unusual word when a more common word would have done just as well.
"Label its advocates the bien-pensants, call attention to their bêtes-noires, attribute their notoriety to a succès de scandale — there's no end to the disdain that can be conveyed through these ready-made charientisms; from enfant terrible to ill-tempered doyenne, the entire spectrum of life is left unguarded to a French assault. "
Maybe it is significant that I found it in "The Grandiloquent Dictionary". A veiled or artful insult.
Thanks again, Jackie.
charientism n. - a gracefully veiled insult This is from "Luciferous Logolepsy". Onelook found only 3 places that have this word; the above, the Grandiloquent Dictionary, and...ta-daaaaaah! Our own tsuwm's site, and I may say that his version is much better:
charientism
(from Gr. charientismus, expression of an unpleasant thing in an agreeable manner)
[obs] a gracefully veiled insult
I'm not sure that I agree that all of the examples cited fit the definition of the word.
And here, I give further proof of my ignorance, no doubt, but charientismus just doesn't strike me as being Greek. Dunno what I would have guessed, but it would have taken me a while to get to Greek, I think.
And yes, Dr. Bill, I see your point about using a complicated word where a simpler one would do, like the avail/take comment in the other thread.
>And yes, Dr. Bill, I see your point about using a complicated word where a simpler one would do, like the avail/take comment in the other thread.
One of my favourite signature lines for Usenet postings:
Eschew obfuscation.
Helpful hint: anything with a ch, th, ph, ps, or y in it and ending in us/os or um/on is prolly going to come from Greek.
Bingley
Thanks. I think it was the i and the e together in the middle of the word that threw me off. The very few Greek words I can think of all seem...simpler...somehow; one vowel at a time, except maybe at the end of the word.
Possible diphthongs are ai/ae, ei, oi, ui, au, eu, ou.(There are others but they'd end up the same way in English.)
Bingley
it's also defined here (thus not all that exotic)
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/edit:: amidst the discussion about origins, the desired "simpler word" to replace
charientism has not been forthcoming.. By the way, I agree with Jackie that the examples do not fit the definition very well. Could it be that the author didn't know French to the required depth?