Twenty-Dollar Words

When I was in college and learnng all kinds of things on my way to getting my English degree with a Certificate to teach (which I never finished and instead ended up with something totally different - but that's another story), I loved using big new words on my family. When I'd use a particularly big word, my dad would say it was a twenty dollar word.

Well, I've brought it down a notch, and I don't use all the big words I can. But I still love words. I have a book called the Grand Pajundrum, which I adore because it gives you all kinds of little-known words with their meanings. And my latest purchase, from the Barnes and Noble $2 "last chance" clearance table no less, is a book called I Always Look Up the Word Egregious. The subtitle is "a vocabulary book for people who don't need one."

Yup, that's me. I don't really NEED a vocabulary book, but I like them. I like to find new words, even if I won't use them any time soon. It's fun to just randomly open a page and find a word that you've never heard before. Today's word is:

Sophistry

"Supporters of the tax credit brush aside the distinction, noting that only a modest amount of it would go to the truly affluent. but that is sophistry; the only reason few rich people would be helped by the tax credit is that there aren't very many rich people."

Sophistry has an unfavorable connotation and means arguing deceitfully, attempting to turn a poor case into a good one by means of clever but specious reasoning.

Hmm. I think I can use the technique, even if I can't use the word.