In Ryan Cho’s opinion article in today's paper, he writes:
"Many of us experience a different type of discourse with our college peers here in Morningside Heights than we do in many other places, including home. Immediately after the election results were released, I began ... explaining [to my mother] why I believed the Republican Party had lost in so many areas. After about five minutes, though, my mother ... commented that all my jargon about politics was just getting her confused. As I ended my comments, I had to pause for a second and ask myself a question: Had I lost my ability to relate to my own mother, and consequently, a large part of society?"
Cho brings up a good point, although he's putting it nicely. We're pretentious talkers, but it's usually something we openly acknowledge and something we're proud of. Our deca-syllabic words are like little gold stars with "Well done, I'm in college! Wow!" scrawled across them.
But we're also perfectly capable of talking like the 99 percent (also known as the social media-verse). Walk around campus and you'll hear any combination of the following travesties tossed around as if they actually belong in the English vocabulary.
Here, to uphold our status as snobby Ivy League poets-laureate-during-our-free-time, are seven words that should never be bandied about in our political/philosophical/metaphysical/mathematical discussions, lest they sully our carefully curated tongues.
