Have you ever used a "big" word, such as "apologize" instead of "sorry," when talking to a small child, only to have the parent say, "He's too little to understand such a big word!"?
I have. I’ve also been accused of using words “nobody else knows, ” trying to make people feel stupid by using complicated words, and **** knows what else. My advice is to have the kid look up the word if he doesn’t know it.