pyrrhic victory

I think, and you'd probably agree, that if you want to break out a million-dollar word or reference, it's best to wrap enough context around it so that it becomes easily understood by most of your readers. The readers with the grad school degrees will appreciate the choice of word, and the high school grads will think "huh, so that's what that means" and move on without throwing up their hands and moving to the Beetle Bailey (or worse, flipping on Action 5 Eyewitness News On Your Side).

 

I agree that it's best if the meaning can at least be inferred from context.

 

I'd agree writing to the lowest common denominator isn't the answer. There's a time and place for everything.

But unless the use of pyrrhic victory turned this game story from good to brilliant, I'd take it out. Call me stupid, but I had to look it up. If I was glancing through stories in the nearby big-city daily and came upon this, I'd stop reading the story unless it was so captivating that it forced me to overlook not understanding it or forced me to dictionary.com.

Pyhrric victory falls into the class of cliche, historical or pop culture references in my mind. I usually don't like Bunker Hill, Helen of Troy, the Pythagorean theorem, Sophie's Choice or the 70s show either (and I think I've seen most with some of our stringers).

I just can't see it adding to the story and at that point it's not worth potentially turning off readers who don't know what it means.

I think this debate of intellectual vs. lowest common denominator is worthy. But in this instance, without seeing the story, I can't imagine pyhrric victory should be the line in the sand for the debate. And with that, I'm not suggesting we write in only the 4th-grade level.

 

in a gamer: no.
in a column or feature: yes.

 

Question: If you had to look up Pyrrhic, how can it be a cliche?

 

I think it's the concept of historical allegory as a lede cliche that's up for discussion.

 

Maybe it's the implementation of the word in a sports context.

Yes, if North Carolina beats Wake Forest by 30 and Tyler Hansbrough tears his ACL, the injury would be costly, and would be subject to second-guessing had the Heels been up by 22 at the time. But would it have been PYRRHIC? No, it would've been an unfortunate circumstance that (again) would be second-guessed.

But if Hansbrough had his injury taking a charge against Duke in the final minute of the ACC tournament to preserve a win, that could be considered a Pyrrhic victory. The Heels get the ACC title and a No. 1 seed, but could come up short in the NCAAs.

 

I would disagree with that. You are not referencing a great battle, you are making a point that a victory may have come at too great of a price.

Whether the phrase itself is a cliche is another matter.

 

From our friends at Wikipedia:

I think the term is so steeped in historic context that even using it as an analogy on its own merits, the response it would get from the people who would understand it tends towards marking it as allegory, which brings us back to the point of cliche.

 

First thing I did when I saw this thread title was go to the dictionary and look the summitch up.

Oh, and I once used “phrenology” in a wrestling gamer. Publisher ripped me a new asshole for it. ;D

 

I find it interesting that many posters in this thread equate someone with only a high school education with ignorance. Many of the smartest people I have ever known didn't go to college, and they certainly didn't need something dumbed down so they could understand it. Snobbery comes in many forms.

 

I think the fact that the poster above you, likely a journalist with a college degree, admitted to having to look up the term in a dictionary is telling. And I'm not the one who thinks writing in a way that's accessable to ALL our readers, not just the smartest 10 percent, is "dumbing down" and "writing to the lowest common denominator".