[lo_zamoyski]

I think the via media is that you should avoid pompous, inflated, vacuous, officious language that obscures more than it reveals[0] (psychiatry speaks of "stilted speech" as a marker of disorder; I would add that it could be a marker of a character flaw). The emphasis should be on coherence and clarity. The aim isn't to avoid "big words", only the inappropriate use of them. People who sprinkle their speech or writing with forced vocabulary are like nouveau riche simpletons who think that the more gold you wear, the better. The solution isn't to shun all gold and live like a scrub who avoids all gold, but someone who knows how and when to use gold. Temperance in dress, temperance in writing and speech, temperate in all things. And what is temperance? A lived respect for the order that follows from the nature of a thing.