First, both the listener and the speaker have to know the word, because otherwise there’s no reason to compliment it
Second, the listener (or reader, but I’m too lazy to type both every damn time) has to care about word usage, and it’s kinda niche.
Third, there’s a significant degree of anti-intellectual belief out in the world, so that segment is going to have the opposite response, and they’re prone to being obnoxious about it.
Fourth, giving compliments is not something everyone is good at, so there’s a segment that might appreciate it, but not know how to express it.
Fifth, a corollary to the fourth, it can feel awkward to give compliments, so it gets shoved avoided, which is partly due to sixth:
Sixth, as a culture, complimenting someone is a complicated social action. There’s all kinds of little unspoken rules around it, and that makes a lot of people just nope out entirely.
But if you hang around people that enjoy word play and vocabulary, you’ll see a lot more compliments :)
They do!
But it’s rare for multiple reasons.
First, both the listener and the speaker have to know the word, because otherwise there’s no reason to compliment it
Second, the listener (or reader, but I’m too lazy to type both every damn time) has to care about word usage, and it’s kinda niche.
Third, there’s a significant degree of anti-intellectual belief out in the world, so that segment is going to have the opposite response, and they’re prone to being obnoxious about it.
Fourth, giving compliments is not something everyone is good at, so there’s a segment that might appreciate it, but not know how to express it.
Fifth, a corollary to the fourth, it can feel awkward to give compliments, so it gets shoved avoided, which is partly due to sixth:
Sixth, as a culture, complimenting someone is a complicated social action. There’s all kinds of little unspoken rules around it, and that makes a lot of people just nope out entirely.
But if you hang around people that enjoy word play and vocabulary, you’ll see a lot more compliments :)