this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2024
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Per se. Vis a vis. Erudite. Juxtaposition. Elucidate.
For each of these, what would you use instead?
I'll take a crack at this one. For what it's worth, I think the first couple are just loanwords from another language which sometimes gets used incorrectly, and the last three are uncommon words in conversation. Know your audience.
"This isn't a meeting about the budget per se"
"This isn't exactly a meeting about the budget"
"The victim met their demise vis a vis poodle attack"
"The victim met their demise by way of poodle attack."
"Steve's a real erudite."
"Steve's a real reader."
"Tom and Jerry is a fun cartoon because of the juxtaposition of the relationship between cat and mouse."
"Tom and Jerry is a fun cartoon because of the oppositeness of the relationship between cat and mouse"
"I don't understand, can you elucidate on that?"
"I don't understand, can you explain?"
Vis a vis is used in an uncommon way here. It typically means "in relation to", "compared with" or "regarding"
"The poodle needs more grooming vis a vis most other breeds of dog"
"The poodle needs more grooming compared to most other breeds of dog"
The use of erudite is slightly wrong. It's an adjective meaning knowledgeable, but you used it like a noun.
"Steve is really erudite"
"Steve is really well-read"
I genuinely thought erudite was a noun. Thanks, TIL
Happy to help! I love uncommon words and love to see them used correctly
If you finish those sentences, it becomes clear why per se is used:
In this situation, using per se provides a more natural sentence flow because it links the first part of the sentence with the second. It's also shorter and fewer syllables.
I think intellectual might be a closer synonym, but intellectual often has more know-it-all connotations than erudite which seems to often refer to a more pure and cerebral quality.
For those to say precisely the same thing it would have to be more like the above which doesn't really roll off the tongue.
Elucidate just means to make something clear in general, explaining something usually inherently implies a linguistic, verbal, explanation, unless otherwise stated.
Honestly, these all seem like very reasonable words to me for the most part. I can understand not using them in some contexts, but for the most part, words exist for a reason, to describe something slightly differently, and it takes forever to talk and communicate if we only limit ourselves to the most basic unnuanced terms.
Oh shit, I picked up "per se" from Animal Crossing as a kid and never questioned it.
In my defense, Rover is a fucking weirdo, you'd never use a phrase you learned from him to try to sound smart.
(Most of these are pretty normal words to use and you shouldn't make a conscious effort to avoid them because some guy on the internet thinks you're pretentious.)
Lol fair. I got insecure for a second because I used to get mistaken for a snob when I was actually just terrible at wording things.