What"s the Difference Between the Adjectives "Portentous" and "Pretentious"?
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Answers to Practice Exercises: Portentous and Pretentious
(a) "Darwin's treatment of human evolution in his most famous work, On the Origin of Species, is limited to twelve portentous words: 'Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.'"
(Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Free Press, 2009)
(b) "[Dorothy Parker] was cornered at one party by a pretentious young man, the sort she once referred to as 'a pony's ass,' who subjected her to his brilliance at some length, concluding with: 'I simply can't bear fools.' Dottie: 'How odd.
Apparently your mother could.'"
(Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker, ed. by Stuart Y. Silverstein. Scribner, 1996)
Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words
200 Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs
Answers to Practice Exercises: Portentous and Pretentious
(a) "Darwin's treatment of human evolution in his most famous work, On the Origin of Species, is limited to twelve portentous words: 'Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.'"
(Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Free Press, 2009)
(b) "[Dorothy Parker] was cornered at one party by a pretentious young man, the sort she once referred to as 'a pony's ass,' who subjected her to his brilliance at some length, concluding with: 'I simply can't bear fools.' Dottie: 'How odd.
Apparently your mother could.'"
(Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker, ed. by Stuart Y. Silverstein. Scribner, 1996)
Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words
200 Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs