Erudite: Adjective: "I am so erudite people are intimidated by me."
Did that make you cringe? What makes some words or phrases not cool to use in describing yourself? I think most people, women especially, are painfully humble. Find me a woman who describes herself as beautiful, slender or sexy outside of a dating profile. No matter how perfectly toned and pulled together a woman is she will find a flaw to deflect any compliment. Men too will laugh off compliments too.
The use of erudite was made more dramatic by it not being acommon word. That put the self-praise into the outer stratosphere of delusional self-promotion.
If you’re wondering, the man wasn’t so much erudite as painfully, self-consciously pretentious, in a word, boring.
My favorite use of erudite comes from Monty Python's sketch about the Pirahna Brothers gangsters. John Cleese, dressed in impeccable drag queen chic portrays Gloria Pules who has been dating Dinsdale Piraha and when asked about Dinsale said, "I found him a charming and erudite companion...and what's more he knew how to treat a female impersonator."
And that remains my definition of erudite
John Cleese and a Lemur friend.
