A page-one headline using the word “limn” in The Baltimore Sun prompted one reader to kvetch that the odd word (which basically means “show” or “depict”) is “arrogant and patronizing,” triggered a link in the nation’s top journo-gossip blog today and elicited a measured defense from bow-tied-in-house-language-maven John E. McIntyre.

“Opposing votes limn differences in race” is how it read.

So, does the Sun limn moxie for teaching readers a new and useful vocabulary word (“Hey, I’m liking what this year’s Ravens cheerleader calendar limns!”) or do they demonstrate how out-of-touch they are with the way real people in 2010 speak, especially with McIntyre describing the questions raised about the word as “a kerfuffle.”

(When journalists step into newsrooms, this word is somehow inserted into their brains. Don’t mean to kick up a kerfuffle, Hon, but if there’s anyone out there who actually utters “kerfuffle” in everyday speech, please contact the Brew, because that would mean we’ve been griping about this word unfairly for years. Actually, we’ve occasionally been tempted to break it out, but fear it would come off sounding like Grandpa Simpson.)

Back to “mull,” “limn,” “probe” and all those other monosyllabic space-saving words…..

To be fair, copy editors have an especially hard time these days, needing to keep headlines not only short but, thanks to the constant quest for search engine optimization, boring and keyword-laden.