A long, long time ago, within the last ten years, my son informed me that I was using a “Fifty-Cent Word”, to which I replied, what the fuck is that? According to Merriam-Webster, a fifty-cent word is “an obscure word used to describe a simple idea thus making the user self-important.” The word in question was “bucolic”. No other single word seemed to capture the essence of what I was describing, and certainly would not have been as concise. He simply was not familiar with the word, and therefore it was fifty-cent to him.