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gal, It's interesting that you find find certain words to be pompous despite English not being your first language. Then again, perhaps that's exactly why you find them pompous. Anyone fluent in English might not even notice the difference between these terms. Either way, your English seems rather good. I've seen other Norwegians post on this board and you all seem to know English better than a lot of Americans here!
Now, are you saying that these people are pompous because they use one word when they could use the other or because you feel that these words can always be interchanged with the other?
There are times when one word is more approprite than the other. Even at times when they can be interchanged, English is a language of variety (just look at the sheer number of synonyms!) and it looks really bad to use the same word, over and over again. So, people might throw in more esoteric words when one has already been used, recently. Consequently, others might find this pompous but it is merely an attempt to keep the text lively...
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