Says JJ: "I think there may be two tendencies at work here. One is the proclivity of academics in the humanities and social sciences to adopt a more technical-sounding language in order to up their prestige in the academy vis-a-vis the hard sciences and philosophy ..... The other is the increasing percentage of the general public that has had some post-secondary education..."
I think it is a much more general phenomenon. One that is linked to the observation that by a great respiratory physiologist I knew, who had on his door in Sick Kids Hospital the slogan: "Bullshit Baffles Brains".
It is also linked I believe to the general trend ot 'politically correct' thinking. What this translates into is the true 'substituionism' - as opposed to Leon's.
When I came to North America, I was started to hear 'refuse manager' for 'dustman'. In academic hospitals such 'substituionism' for plain speak is very common. Hari