Vocabulary.

[Keevan Draco]

Azure?

I value vocabulary for the flexibility it offers when dealing with many many different people. For instance, with my friends, we are used to "speaking forsoothly" in our conversations, without fear of misunderstandings. At my job, however, most of my co-workers and many of the students I feed are more aclimated to using street vernacular so I adjust my vocabularity to match the situation. Sometimes, I find, that words are completly useless in certain situations and non-verbal communication wins out with a look or gesture, or shrug of the shoulders to convey a complete conversation.

So I would have to rate the total package of vocabulary at a very flexible 5/10.  

[trampyre]

-Resurrected Writer-

Well, look at my username. Then again, a big vocabulary is hard to work into conversation.

Employing prolix diction, and being loquacious about it, oftentimes alienates listeners who do not appreciate such sesquipedalian speech being exploited for the self-gratification of the speaker. Oftentimes it is best expunged.

I feel the same way, and I often tone down myself in order to fit in. Over the years, it's made my brain lazy and I regret it sometimes. I suffer every time I have a more appropriate word at the tip of my tongue, only to squelch it in favour of something simpler and easier to understand (read: dumbed-down). Most of the time, I hate to sound like a snobbish bookworm. I believe there is a balance, however.  

[The Goth Apple]

I personally feel the best balance is to put absolutely no thought into the actual words one uses beyond precision. Don't say blue if you mean azure, I mean. Or for that matter, corpulent if you just mean fat. There is a difference. For the most part, whatever comes out naturally should be about right for whoever's using the words.