As I was reading Underworld, I was struck by how many times I had to reach for the dictionary. Sure, not being well-read, my vocabulary isn’t nearly as large as other people’s. I memorized a lot of vocabulary for the SAT, but after years of disuse they have long since left my memory. But should I really be having to look words up almost once a page? Just in the epilogue of 40-odd pages alone, I had to at least look up these words (I only know these because they appear in my Dictionary.com app’s history):
- porringer
- loden
- tyrolean
- grackles
- suffused
- lubricious
- kestrel
- numinous
- berm
- cinctured
- krater
- superette
- sibilants
I wonder if all smart writers use an excessive number of big, obscure words. I just don’t see why it’s necessary, other than to show off a wide vocabulary. I mean, sure, if you’ve been using the same word over and over again, it would be nice to find a synonym and use that instead. But I don’t think this is the case for any of the words used in the list above. So why do it, other than to show off? It frustrates the reader (or at the very least, me), and unless they’re conspiring with dictionary publishers to increase their sales, it just doesn’t make much sense to use such obscure words.