The US has had a long history of anti-intellctualism[1], and in the 1950's "egghead" was popularized as a term of abuse against intellectuals.[2] It's possible

The US has had a long history of anti-intellctualism[1], and in the 1950's "egghead" was popularized as a term of abuse against intellectuals.[2] It's possible that the popular disdain towards the use of long words in the US is related to this anti-intellectual attitude. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_American_Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_Americ... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egghead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egghead