Embiggins is a perfectly cromulent word

You'd have to erudite to know that

Strategize

Why use 4 letters ("plan") when you can use ten.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

II even checked that spelling in the Urban Dictionary.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Because a plan is a single action to attain a goal, strategies are objectives. Similar yes, the same? Not exactly.

I first read whilest as whitest.

Bugs the hell out of me when someone at work asks me to "reach out to" someone. Sure, let me stretch my arm over 1,000 miles. Sorry, can't reach them.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Fair enough. My definition was a bit clumsy. Trying (a bit) too hard to simplify. In my own defense, I posted that early in the morning before my caffeine literally kicked in.

The first time I heard this argument it was advanced by one of my professors in graduate school; I was surprised at the time because it simply isn't true--"unique" has a broader definition than you (and he) ascribe(d) to it and is used only infrequently in the popular lexicon in the narrow sense for which this would hold true. The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary said it best, so I'll quote them:

"There is a set of adjectives—including unique, complete, equal, infinite, and perfect—whose core meaning embraces a mathematically absolute concept and which therefore, according to a traditional argument, cannot be modified by adverbs such as really, quite, or very. For example, since the core meaning of unique (from Latin ‘one’) is ‘being only one of its kind’, it is logically impossible, the argument goes, to submodify it: it either is ‘unique’ or it is not, and there are no in-between stages. In practice the situation in the language is more complex than this. Words like unique have a core sense but they often also have a secondary, less precise sense: in this case, the meaning ‘very remarkable or unusual’, as in a really unique opportunity. In its secondary sense, unique does not relate to an absolute concept, and so the use of submodifying adverbs is grammatically acceptable."

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.

Except "unique" does not mean "unusual."

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

I think the point of the OED editors' note is that the word IS used to mean unusual, and has been for some time. Language constantly evolves, after all, and word definitions are by no means fixed.

"In practice... " doesn't make the usage correct. Indeed what I have quoted above is just someone's opinion, so why pretend it's necessarily correct?

On that understanding of language, there is literally no such thing as an improper use of a word.

And I mean literally in the correct sense, not metaphorically.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

If an employer said, "I want to ultilize my employees as best possible" compared to "I want to use my employees as best possible", it sounds different to me.

Utilize sounds like it's about efficiency.

Use sounds like it's about slaving "for the man".

My 2 cents.

In the case of the OED, as with other dictionaries, the philosophy of the editors is to ascertain the definition of a given word based on its usage. Word usage changes all the time, determined entirely by the population using it; take the word "gay," for example--a dictionary editor did not decide that it should mean "homosexual," the people using it did and now it is used in that sense almost exclusively. For another example, the word "symphony" originally meant a musical form, but is now commonly used to denote the group of musicians who play music in that form. There is no tribunal responsible for defining a word like "unique" and then enforcing its correct usage; the word means what people using it want it to mean, and more people apparently share the opinion that "unique" simply means "unusual" than want to be sticklers for its historical meaning. You can fight it if you want, but know that it's a losing battle.

I have no reason to fight anything. But know that if you use "literal" to mean "figurative," or "unique" to mean "unusual," lots of people are going to consider you ignorant, no matter what the OED editors opine.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

No worries. Thanks for indulging my supercilious arrogance.

Pretty certain you didn't

Tell me more, I want to be that dad. Plus my 16 year old is going to be taking the sat soon.

autodidactic - pretty much explains my life.

I'll sometimes use 'hence' in a sentence which I think I got from my father's extensive vocabulary. Its a word that I don't see others using very much on here.

Sure, given that context I'd agree w/ your example, but that's not how the word is frequently utilized just to sound more pompous...

Are uh and um words?