A witticism is a remark that is amusingly clever in perception or expression. Robert Hartwell Fiske coined the term dimwitticism in his book, The Dimwit’s Dictionary, to describe the opposite: dull expressions that provide no insight. This is a great example of observations and judgments on style and usage. His judgements are sometimes harsh, but in his apologetic preface, he makes a point that underlies the motivation for this whole book and particularly this chapter on the ugly side of our language:
Few of us are able to learn well by pedantic and rote methods. But if I disturb or annoy a person, is he not more likely to remember what bothered him; is he not more likely to retain what was said; is he not more likely to learn?
Fiske lays out fourteen different classes of dimitticisms, many of which overlap with my treatment on annoying usage. If you enjoyed chapter, you should get Fiske’s book. He employs an effective style and memorable word selection. Here are his categories and a few examples. Note his use of alliteration in the category names.
- Foreign phrases: persona non grata ; raison d’etre ; fait accompli ; joie de vivre
- Grammatical gimmicks: anyway; something or other; everything like that; stuff, things
- Ineffectual phrases: it has come to my attention; it is important to realize; it is interesting to note
- Inescapable pairs: aid and abet; pure and simple; closely allied; valuable asset; delicate balance
- Infantile phrases: not in a million years; in no way, shape or form; without further ado
- Moribound metaphors: thrown under the bus; light at the end of a tunnel; a new ballgame; above par
- Overworked words: amazingly; awesome; basically; crisis; mindset; significant; very;
- Plebian statements: there are no words to describe; he is boring; what can you do?
- Popular prescriptions: actions speak louder than words; money isn’t everything; forgive and forget
- Quack equations: it is what it is; more is better; perception is reality; seeing is believing
- Suspect superlatives: perfectionist; area of expertise; great; pursuit of excellence, best and brightest
- Torpid terms: cautiously optimistic; utilize; significant other; proactive; incumbent upon
- Withered words: albeit; behoove; ergo; amonst; unbeknownst; verily; wherein;
- Wretched redundancies: consensus of opinion; just recently; past experience; in terms of; is because
Occasionally, there are good reasons to use dimwitticisms. If you observe that you use them more than occasionally in your own speech and writing patterns, then you are probably annoying more people than you think. The first step to improvement is observing and noticing.