I once had someone go off on me in this same manner, almost verbatim, for using the word coy.

Can you imagine?

One syllable is too big a word.

Then they said I shouldn’t use words that nobody knows what they mean.

It had been a vocabulary word 2 years prior. It had been in a story we were reading as assignment, like, a month prior. AND it had been used in a film we were watching in class the previous day.

And the best part? Are you ready for this? The pièce de résistance was that the person who said this to me was my 11th grade literature teacher.

:: cue chuckles, rolling on the floor, knee slapping, face palms, and head shaking.

Thank you and good night.