Me and my big vocabulary

The NY Times analyzed what words in its stories were most often looked up via a dictionary feature on its site. As a writer, I know that if people stop to look up a word, it may stop them from reading on. So I felt chagrin that of its top 20, I recognized 19 (louche? what’s a louche?), and would probably use all of them except sui generis (I never remember that it basically means unique). In fact, I like to toss around words like shibboleth and peripatetic. I think they’re fun.