Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions some from big words? He thinks I don't know ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.
-----Ernest Hemingway, having been informed that William Faulkner "had no courage" and "had never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary."
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Personally, I love big words. When we started vigorous vocab studies in jr. high, I thought that was the cat's meow! However, as a physician, I learned to keep my words simple, direct, and colorful...and was told by patients more than once that I was the only doc that ever talked to them so's they could understand!
More education, sadly, often teases the "erudite one" away from common sense and the ability to communicate with the public. Grandiloquency rarely augments clarity, and prolixity leads to perplexity, perturbation, and pother.
Sometimes, a big word is the only bullet that'll hit the bull's-eye.
Oft-times, not.
Do you think it is ever okay to send a reader to the dictionary? (I try not to, and consider it a failure of communication on my behalf if I cannot be understood by the reader on the first pass.)
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I would appreciate and might even enjoy your dialogue!