Doesn’t the graph showing the use of the word obfuscate show that it’s 0.20 per million people that use it today? Is that a percentage? So i would need 5 million people before i find 1 person that says it? And has it only risen in use since the 50s? That’s fairly recent in the grand scheme of things, considering it’s such a small rise in use.
Anyway, your use of the word is anecdotal, and after 35 years on this planet, i find it amazing that its maybe the first time I’ve ever seen the word used outside of a book. So if we compare your anecdotal evidence to mine, we arrive back at zero.
You even said you dont use it casually, only in a professional setting.
I happily accept that non native speakers do end up with an odd vocabulary. But that doesnt change that the word isn’t very common.
It’s 0.20 per million words in books on Google Scholar AFAIK. So it has been getting steadily more popular in books that they track, in terms of word frequency. It said nothing about colloquial English (not sure how that could be tracked).
And the 50s isn’t recent as far as modern speakers is concerned. Someone who would’ve been a kid at the time would be in their 80s today.
FOMO as a term is much more recent (like 10-15 years), though as a concept it’s much older (very similar to “keeping up with the Joneses”, which is >100 years old).
You even said you dont use it casually, only in a professional setting.
Well yeah, if I’m talking about dinner plans or something, it’s not an idea I need to convey. It comes up a lot at work though.
It’s not a five dollar word where there’s a handy, more common replacement. I guess conceal or obscure can work in some cases, but I’d only so that if the listener doesn’t understand the initial word. I work with a lot of non-native speakers, so I’m used to providing short definitions if I use something they haven’t come across (even for relatively common words).
Doesn’t the graph showing the use of the word obfuscate show that it’s 0.20 per million people that use it today? Is that a percentage? So i would need 5 million people before i find 1 person that says it? And has it only risen in use since the 50s? That’s fairly recent in the grand scheme of things, considering it’s such a small rise in use.
Anyway, your use of the word is anecdotal, and after 35 years on this planet, i find it amazing that its maybe the first time I’ve ever seen the word used outside of a book. So if we compare your anecdotal evidence to mine, we arrive back at zero.
You even said you dont use it casually, only in a professional setting.
I happily accept that non native speakers do end up with an odd vocabulary. But that doesnt change that the word isn’t very common.
It’s 0.20 per million words in books on Google Scholar AFAIK. So it has been getting steadily more popular in books that they track, in terms of word frequency. It said nothing about colloquial English (not sure how that could be tracked).
And the 50s isn’t recent as far as modern speakers is concerned. Someone who would’ve been a kid at the time would be in their 80s today.
FOMO as a term is much more recent (like 10-15 years), though as a concept it’s much older (very similar to “keeping up with the Joneses”, which is >100 years old).
Well yeah, if I’m talking about dinner plans or something, it’s not an idea I need to convey. It comes up a lot at work though.
It’s not a five dollar word where there’s a handy, more common replacement. I guess conceal or obscure can work in some cases, but I’d only so that if the listener doesn’t understand the initial word. I work with a lot of non-native speakers, so I’m used to providing short definitions if I use something they haven’t come across (even for relatively common words).