When your brain knows just the right word, you can be more concise. And sometimes you can slip in the verbal dagger without the victim understanding what you’ve done.
Insouciant
When you want to say the defendants in the medical malpractice case just don’t give a damn, you can label their procedures insouciant. Insouciant translates from French as “uncaring.” Insouciance encapsulates the essence of negligence.
Specious
The law is a learned profession, right? So you would never call your opponent a liar. But you might assert that their arguments are specious.
Banal
You (and the judge) have heard this (specious?) argument a hundred times. It’s trite. It’s boring. You could say, “Counsel’s banal assertion does not justify the position set forth in this case.” This word is correctly pronounced as many as three ways, though the preferred pronunciation rhymes with “canal.”
Other Verbal Daggers?
Do you have an elegant verbal dagger you especially like to thrust? Please leave a comment telling us your choicest lingual weapon.
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