Post-a-Day Jan 21

[lunadelcorvo]

I see this is already not an 'every day thing!' I'm choosing the question for Jan 18th, since the one for today is sort of dumb (sweatpants to work - whatever.)

Thesaurus Day: Do you own a thesaurus? How often do you consult a thesaurus to find just the right word?

I do own a couple, actually, the physical, bound paper kind, even! And while I don't use the book versions as often, I do use a thesaurus quite often, usually when writing fiction. I have always been a verbivore and had a thing for weird, wacky, and wonderful language facts and oddball words. What I find disappointing, however, is how often someone comments (roughly 50/50 whether it's complimentary) on my word choices. Like, dude, 'viscerally' is not an especially lofty word...seriously?

Comments

[avalonautumn]

I love words, too! And I "play" in some types of my writing for sure with my vocabulary choices, so I know how disappointing it is to get told some common word is "too much." For whom, exactly?

[lunadelcorvo]

Right? Lately, AI detection software has been flagging student work that has 'sophisticated vocabulary or grammatical structures' as being AI-generated, so students literally have to dumb down their language to avoid being failed for plagiarism. It's bloody infuriating!