I love big words. It started when I was a kid and first heard "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." ("Something to say when you don't know what to say," according to the movie "Mary Poppins.")

I quickly moved on to real words: "Ebullient," "innocuous" and "malodorous" were some of my favorites. If I came across a word I didn't know in a book, I looked it up. I made flashcards to help myself remember the ones I particularly liked. Now I'm worried that big words—the...