Festooned

While engrossed in a fun mystery novel recently, I ran across a word I don't see often anymore:  Festooned.  I stopped reading for a moment and said the word out loud a few times.  Festooned.  Isn't it a great word?  Festooned. Isn't it a fun word?  I'd much rather say festooned than adorned or decorated, as in:  The room was festooned with balloons and streamers.  Our language used to be more beautiful and diverse, with such lovely words as festooned.  I think of Jane Austen and the beautiful language spoken in her books by such characters as Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice."  Today, in our era of abbreviations and acronyms created in order for us to slam out a quick text or email, I wonder if Elizabeth Bennet would even understand what we're saying.  We've lost much of that lovely language. I'm going to make every effort to gather beautiful words and start using them in my everyday discourse.  I wonder what would happen if we all made such an attempt.  I fear that we'd better get at it before some of our most beautiful words are lost forever.