Is it common to use 'terminus a quo' in academic writing?

I'm writing an academic paper and I want to replace the word 'starting point' with 'terminus a quo'. I'm not sure if this Latin word is commonly used. I'm trying to make my language more interesting but I don't want to use a word most people don't know. Any suggestions? Thanks!

The only instance I could find of this after searching in various corpora was in Early English Books Online:

't is such a choosing of error as is accompanied with a rejecting of truth: a Hereticke puts light for darknesse, and darknes or light; good fo evill, and evill for good, he chooseth eror as truth, and refseth truth as error, they that give heed to seducing pirits and doctrines of devils, do also depart from the faith, 1 tim: 4: 1: resist the, 2 tim 3: 8, and turne away their ears from the truth, 2 tim: 4: 4: their course hath a teminus a quo als well as ad quem: 4't is an error professed and maintained, and which y that means becomes a scandal and snare to others: for although there may be Heresie (as well as other kinds of sinurking and hid in the thoughts, yet that belongs to gods judgement only, not to mans: the heresies which are spoken of (A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many usefull questions and cases of conscience are discussed and resolved, 1649; Gillespie, George, 1613-1648. | Gillespie, Patrick, 1617-1675)

So if you'd like to add that 17th century flair to your writing, crack on!