I think I hate the word oeuvre.

Oeuvre: Any work or the works of a writer, painter or artist. Can refer to the entire body of work.

Degas

I heard the word the other day used in a way, or rather, used in a context which made oeuvre seem so pretentious I sort of wanted to puke. Well… There was no sort of about it. I did want to puke.

It’s like when Giada (you know which Giada I mean) pronounces food-ish words in a pretentious precious Italian accent. Hate it. Just say the word in plain old English, please. There’s nothing cute about it. It sounds inauthentic and it’s plain old annoying.

Of course when Tom Stronach speaks Scottish, that’s a different animal altogether. For one thing- he’s as authentic as you get, born and bred. For another he makes me swoon. So he’s all right.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of respect. If I’m trying to communicate with another hiker, a non-English speaking hiker who happens to speak Spanish, I do make an effort to pronounce the words correctly - Mexican Spanish, of course, I’m definitely not speaking Catalonian Spanish. And when I was in Paris I did try to speak French to the best of my limited ability. When we were in Wales I worked hard on my Welsh pronunciations.

But I get really annoyed when people go out of their way to speak or write in a pretentious manner.

As my favorite creative writing professor always said, why waste money on a ten dollar word when a ten cent word will do.

The next time I hear someone use the word oeuvre (someone who is not French and who is not referring to Monet or Manet or Renoir or Degas or Cezanne) I’m either going to reply- “Gesundheit!” Or “How dare you! I’ve never been so insulted in my life!”

Cezanne

And of course-

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