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by 9ac345a5509a 2899 days ago
Why? It sounds incredibly pretentious. I think most people would appreciate Plain English [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_English

2 comments

>>> collinear anatidae

> sounds incredibly pretentious. I think most people would appreciate Plain English [0].

I can't speak for most people, but I didn't know what it meant, learned it after reading it, and found it quite appropriately funny and witty. I also learned a new word. There was nothing I found pretentious about it.

I think a helpful and reasonably objective criterion in deciding this might be whether the use of the phrase was (1) necessary to send the correct message, (2) required to understand the received message, and (3) liable to send an incorrect message. If #1 = no and #2 = yes, or if #3 = yes, then you should probably avoid using it. In this case it's #1 = no and #2 = no and #3 = no, so it's fine.

Because it's a lovely application of rhyming slang.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang

How exactly is it rhyming with anything?