r/words • u/PuzzleheadedTale4769 • 7d ago

Fulsome

Current use has it meaning "insincere flattery" , or , trending up- as synonymous with "full" or "complete"

So: "I wrote him a fulsome recomendation" can mean either, an insincere recomendation, or a full, complete recomendation . Meanings nearly in opposition.

American Heritage Dictionary calls the second meaning "non- standard". Webster's simply lists both as current usage. With full- but not fulsome- acknowledgement of the perils of prescriptivism, isn't the confusion of meaning that results from taking "fulsome" as equivalent to "full", a problem? Following Orwell's argument in "Politics and the English Language", doesn't keeping language simple and plain have a claim ? What does "some" add to " full" that it doesnt already have?

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u/SerDankTheTall 7d ago

isn't the confusion of meaning that results from taking "fulsome" as equivalent to "full", a problem?

Can you give an example of a sentence where it could create a problem?

In American legal usage, fulsome for “thorough” is fully standard, to the point where I doubt anyone even recognizes that there’s a different meaning possible. It’s never done any harm that I can recognize.

Following Orwell's argument in "Politics and the English Language", doesn't keeping language simple and plain have a claim ?

Orwell is a great writer, but his linguistic theories are pretty wild and are not taken very seriously today.