The Hamlet Project

Encompassment? Really Polonius?
How is this drift of question an encompassment? It sounds like a pretty direct line. Exactly what would Reynaldo be circling around?
I guess he’s getting the lock down on what all the Danskers are up to but encompassing it?
But once again, I think Polonius is using a 5 dollar word where a penny word will do. Speaking of 5 dollar words, I looked up this expression recently and discovered that there is no set amount to express this idea.
There are 10 dollar words, 4 dollar words, 3, 2, 1. There are 25 cent words.
It can be hard to tell if 25 cent words are meant to be big or small ones. I suspect there has been some inflation of the value of words – that is, the ones that are perceived to be unnecessarily fancy have grown from 10 cent words to twenty five cent words to dollar words and so on.
It’s a drift of value, of expense and expression. But a penny will hold as a word that accomplishes the same thing but more simply and clearly.
10 cent, 25 cent, dollar and ten dollar words depend on use, too – who is using them and why. Hamlet uses loads of big words, fancy ones, with lots of syllables, but they never seem like ten dollar words in his mouth. They seem like the right ones – but Polonius, Polonius uses big words and they stand out as big words, as a man using words, not to express something but to impress or to create an image of an intelligent man. He uses more words than he needs, as many an academic, politician or obfuscator of meaning will.