Spock's Vocabulary

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I had a friend in high school who came up with a motto along those lines -- "eschew polysyllabic pseudoprofundity". Basically, "don't use big words to try to sound smart!"
Yeah, I ran around with THAT kind of crowd...

Judging by your presence here, you still do!

Encyclopedias! 1969 World Book my parents sacrificed for, because a proper house had an encyclopedia set for the children. With the see-through overlay anatomy pages. I also liked countries and military insignia - the orderliness thereof, I think.

My folks bought an ecyclopedia set when I was born too. So did my wife's, and she still has her books! Though a lot has happened since 1956 that they don't cover.

My parents actually did it twice. They bought a Collier's Encyclopedia in 1960 right after they married. But by the time we kids needed it, 20 years later, only half of what was in it was still true, so they shelled out for a Britannica set.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Spock and Stan Lee both boosted my vocabulary tenfold. When some dude was trying to win an argument, I stopped him with "practicality does suggest capitulation." Some other time, I said to the same guy "mere loquaciousness will not be sufficient to vanquish an enemy." I was, like, 17 and unpopular. But I did proofread a lot of papers.

 

[Forbin]

I've even managed to occasionally come up with a word that my boss didn't know, and she was a professional Quality Assurance proofreader! I called a manager at work a Martinet once, and she asked me what it meant. I was so proud.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I called a manager at work a Martinet once, and she asked me what it meant. I was so proud.

... until you explained it to her!

 

[Forbin]

I called a manager at work a Martinet once, and she asked me what it meant. I was so proud.

... until you explained it to her!

Heh. Unclear pronoun usage on my part. I called another manager a Martinet, and my boss asked me what it meant.

 

[publiusr]

(hic) how dare you call me a martini...

 

[FreddyE]

Hell, I had a Spockian vocabulary when Mr. Spock was just a germ of an idea in Gene Roddenberry's brain. I was the only kid I knew who read the encyclopedia for fun.

Lol...I did that too...saved my parents quite a lot of stress...for example...they never had to give me "the talk"...I read in the encyclopedia when I was 13 ;-)

 

[Praetor Baldric]

I read somewhere that Nimoy had suggested that Spock should be on the verbose side not so much because of his being an intellectual than because Nimoy wanted to suggest that English (or Standard if you prefer) was a second language and so therefore he would have a tendency to use a trumped-up vocabulary (which often occurs with second language speakers who either are unaware or uncomfortable with using colloquialisms and the more common vernacular). Also explains why he never used any contractions.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I read somewhere that Nimoy had suggested that Spock should be on the verbose side not so much because of his being an intellectual than because Nimoy wanted to suggest that English (or Standard if you prefer) was a second language and so therefore he would have a tendency to use a trumped-up vocabulary (which often occurs with second language speakers who either are unaware or uncomfortable with using colloquialisms and the more common vernacular). Also explains why he never used any contractions.

Spock really set the stage for Mr. Data, Seven of Nine, and T'Pol. It's a Star Trek archetype: the serious-minded genius who speaks in formal grammar, does math in his head, and makes often-disdainful observations about humans from an outside (and implicitly superior) perspective.

Before Star Trek came along, this character type appeared in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). I'm not sure if that's the first case we could think of.

The 1977 TV series Man From Atlantis is another example of the same type. The lead in that show spoke very much like Heinlein's protaganist.

 

[nureintier]

I just started watching TOS again. Spock is contagious. I have to make a conscious effort not to talk like him.

Lol...I did that too...saved my parents quite a lot of stress...for example...they never had to give me "the talk"...I read in the encyclopedia when I was 13 ;-)

Somebody I went to grade school with had an illustrated encyclopedia that he would bring to school. It had everything we wanted to know in it, with pictures. ^_^ We'd sit around during recess looking at stupid naked drawings in there.

I still have my old encyclopedia sets, and some I inherited from my grandparents.

 

[Metryq]

Today a character like Spock would be considered autistic... and probably put in a wheelchair to make him look smarter.