Uncle Ned’s Bad Words: esoteric
My next bad word is “esoteric”, that’s ES-oh-TEAR-ick (that’s TEAR as in “rip up my contract,” not as in “there’s no crying in baseball”).
People usually use esoteric words – for example: “aphorism,” “bowdlerize,” or “epigraph” – in order to make themselves feel smart, or other people feel dumb, or both. Esoteric words are supposed to mean something special to only a few special people.* For everyone else, an esoteric word means, “I’m probably smarter than you and I’m certainly more special than you.” Using esoteric words may help you feel smarter, at least for a little while, but eventually esoteric words just help you feel lonely. Example:
“I’ll bet you don’t even know what “esoteric” means!”**
* If you don’t feel special enough yet, you may learn some esoteric doozies in Uncle Ned’s Bad Words.
** Use this sentence at your own risk.