Reposted (with alterations) from December 4, 2007.
Thesaurusitis (also sometimes called “thesaurus rape,” but I’m not particularly fond of that term) is when an author uses words that are too obscure or uncommon in an effort to appear smarter. The most grievous example of this is when the author misuses the word. It’s called Thesaurusitis because it occurs most frequently when authors use a thesaurus to find synonyms for “small” words.
OBSCURE WORDS
Let us first agree that the purpose of writing is communication. It really doesn’t matter what you are writing, your goal will always be to communicate something – whether that be an argument, an idea, a design, or a story. Using obscure words in an attempt to appear smarter risks confusing your reader. A confused reader will not understand your message, therefore you will not be communicating.
When writing a story, your goal should be Suspension of Disbelief; you want your reader to put her own life aside for a little while and live within your story. Your reader “believes” the story for as long as she is reading. When you use words that feel out of place, either because the reader doesn’t know them or because they are just too archaic, it forces your reader out of the story, making her conscious of the artifice. This is the last thing you want.
You may be getting the impression that I am advocating a general “dumbing down” of writing – this is not so. Rather, write at your own comfort level. Do not try to “dress up” your writing or make a conscious effort to raise your vocabulary. Rather, think of the language you might use when chatting with a stranger at a bus stop. Another strategy is to decide on your audience and write for their comfort level. Whatever you do, though, do not write above your own comfort level because that frequently leads to my next issue:
MISUSED WORDS
When attempting to dress up their writing, many authors will use a thesaurus. Now, thesauri aren’t bad things in and of themselves, but they are frequently used foolishly. It is my firm belief that all thesauri should be printed with “there is no such thing as a true synonym” in big bold letters on the cover. Doubles simply do not exist. If they do, one will either fall out of use or adopt a slightly different connotation.
To give you a concrete example, my thesaurus gives “allow” as a synonym for “legalize.” I think that most of us know that while these two words do mean the same thing on a very general level, we would not use them interchangeably. To “legalize” something has a very specific meaning that “allow” doesn’t have. When I tell my hypothetical kids that they can go to a concert, I am not “legalizing” concert attendance.
This is the trap many people fall into. Imagine that you didn’t know what legalize meant and you wanted a fancier word meaning “allow.” You might use the sentence: “Herbert legalized his children to go to the concert.” That’s the risk you take every time you use a thesaurus. Instead of sounding smarter as you may have intended (or sounding varied if you were trying to avoid repetition), you will instead embarrass yourself.
So the general rule when using a thesaurus is that you may use it for inspiration, but you should never use a word that you don’t already know (or, at the least look it up in a dictionary first).
