Fancy words: Osculate me, Kate | The Economist

WE’VE moved our New York offices to a new building with one of those television screens in the elevator. You know the kind: a 3-second weather forecast, business tip of the day, capsule news, adverts.

Today there was a “Word of the Day: osculate: v. to kiss.” And weirdly, this pinched a nerve in me, and I now have to say it plain. I hate the word-of-the-day business: those word-of-the-day calendars and so forth. It’s not that I don’t like words. I wouldn’t write a language blog if I did. But it’s in particular I hate these words used to replace perfectly plain ones, words that do nothing but add length and a Greco-Latin sheen with no new meaning. Some people may take knowing words like “osculate” as a mastery of language. I’d describe linguistic skill the other way round, as knowing that a word like “osculate” should virtually never be used in place of “kiss”. Few things are more enjoyable than a good kiss, but I’d turn down any offer to osculate.