If you entered into a conversation with someone who clearly dosent use "big words" would you continue to use them and hope they understood what they meant, or would you grope for a word they would understand better and risk patronising them?
Parents of a boy in my area are the "brightest" of the bunch (nor am i for that matter) but i was talking to them about general childrearing and doing the usual note comparing. I recounted i book i am reading at the moment and said it was "indicative" of some such or other. I knew straight away by the look on their faces, they thought i was being "snooty". Argh.