Heh, I tripped someone up on
macabre last week. There was a pause, and then she asked me if that was like
morbid...
But I've never seen the first two examples. I guess I need to read more goat-centered fiction.
The only instance I can think of where a fiction author tee'd me off with big words was China Mieville's Iron Council, but that might have been partly due to other reasons, as well as having to reach for the dictionary five times on one particular page. I kept getting the feeling he wasn't using the words quite right. However, with most authors I've known, that hasn't been the case, and the general meaning is clear enough.