🚀 go-pugleaf

It IS a darned good word-- and so are opprobrium, invectiva, evinced,
evicerate, elucidate, untrammeled, excoriated, and obfuscate (all words found
in a single professional article.)

Here's my (unsolicited) opinion on the subject:

There are times when there's nothing quite so delicious as a juicy tidbit from
the POCKET DICTIONARY OF FIFTY-CENT WORDS AND AGGRANDIZED VOCABULARY.  But
obscure or jargonistic language should be use with the same care as
expletive slang:  a judiciously placed "damn" or "sh*t!" can make the reader
sit up and take notice;  but repeated use reduces the shock value of such
language, and may be annoying enough to distract the reader from the point that
the writer is trying to make.

Sometimes word choice in academic writing reminds me of "clique talk" or "gang
slang":  teenagers quite capable of talking "normally" with their parents or
teachers will assume a completely different language with their peers in order
to demonstrate membership and acceptance in a social group.  By elevating
demonstration of membership into the elite of academe above the communicative
purpose of writing, we're diss-ing them ungroovy cats who ain't part of the
this EXCELLENT 'hood and so it's like totally impossible for them to get what
we're sayin'-- Dig? Well okay, then.
-- 
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Alice Jones                       | Ecosympathizer / Comic Relief
aljones@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu | City & Regional Planning Dept
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