This is one of those concepts that makes absolutely no sense to me. As a writer, words are VERY important, and the last thing I would dare to do is limit them, or create some list of unaccepted words. Particularly when used in isolation like this.

Words are the smallest element of structured language, but are built from generations of ideals and concepts and mental constructs that go back further than language itself. Words are built from other words, based on other languages, with other constructs mostly unknown to us. To that end, we should be careful how we approach language—particularly in our decisions to censure ourselves and each other.

It’s true, there are certain words I would never use, but that’s because these words bring harm to others—they indicate hatred or disgust or even apathy. But that’s not just “the bad words.” When someone asks me to look at a poem they wrote or wants to tell me about a project they’re interested in, even if that poem is horrible, or they have no chance finishing that project, I seek words that encourage them, and help them to do their best. When someone is hurting, I look for words that comfort and bring hope. When in conversation, I look for words that best convey the thoughts and ideas I’m trying to get across. I will, sometimes in the middle of a paragraph, spend vast amounts of time finding a word that somehow “fits better” than the one I’m using.

Context is also a big deal. I used to call my mom Toots. For us it was a term of endearment. But you’d better believe that if anybody else called her that they’d be dodging frying pans. Many of my friends and her friends were “offended” by this, but it wasn’t any of their business. In rap music we hear the dreaded N-word by people who believe that they are allowed to use it. Gay people like using the “F” word when teasing each other. I have girlfriends that use the “B” word.

We also have connotation and denotation. The literal definition of a word, and the emotional image that the word summons. When I use the word hand, I think about my grandmother’s arthritic hand in my hand as I held it while she took her last breath. To this day, that’s the image that “hand” cultivates when I hear, and even use it.

And that’s only the bare minimum. There’s also intonation, subtext, inside-jokes…

Creating a list of words we’re no longer allowed to use not going to solve our problems. In fact, it just makes us angry and gives us the impression that we’re being controlled by someone else.

I noted that you don’t like the term “passed on.” On 10 July, my brother-in-law was one of the 16 Marines killed when their C-130 split apart over Mississippi. I was hanging out with him a couple days before. We were pushing through the crowd in Times Square trying to find some friends who were visiting from out of town. And now he’s “gone.” He’s passed. He was here, he isn’t here anymore. He’s dead. But passed works better for me because of how close we were. He didn’t just die… he “went away.” He’s gone from me. This has nothing to do with an afterlife. This has everything to do with how close we were in this life.

I personally don’t like the term “unsweetened.” To me it’s an idiotic concept. How do you “unsweeten” tea? Isn’t that its natural state? So the real term would be “sweetened,” wouldn’t it? As a writer, I also hate that amateurs call sketches “skits.” A skit is something that your local church group puts on—cheesy and not well written. A sketch is something you would see in a more professional capacity.

Steven Pinker has a whole series on words and language: The Language Instinct; The Stuff of Thought; Language as a Window Into Human Nature; Words and Rules (1999/2011); Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles; The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.

The point I’m making is that “words” are merely the bud in the flower. They spring from something much deeper—something that existed even before language. Therefore, creating censorship lists merely plucks the bud before it’s had a change to grow, but it doesn’t change the root system underneath. Knowing words, understand words, and knowing how to use their power… that’s where change happens. Just ask any really good actor, or writer, or speaker.

I have never said god bless you when someone sneezes but I do say ""Gesundheit" ( Which means health)
I do say Passed away, because it means you have passed from this life into no life. I never thought of it as religious.
The one thing I wish OI would never say, but I do is OMG! or Oh my god .. since I do not have a god I have no clue why I say it, but to me its the polite form of " Fucking Motherfucker"

I agree that the use of words is important in life and something that most people are not aware of. One of the phrases I loathe is they have 'passed', no, they died, they didn't pass gas, pass me on the freeway, pass onto the other side, when they DIED they ceased to exist. It's death not passing! A lot of other religious words I don't care about too much. Words only have the meaning of the context given to them, so most people knowing me as an atheist would not think that I cared about being 'blessed', etc.

My pious mother always said "Gesundheit" because her maternal grandfather was German, but my Christian wife and I had a big fight early in our marriage because she wanted me to say "Bless you" because she felt like my not doing so was gypping her out of blessings! I yielded because it wasn't worth the grief, but now that we're separated, you can bet I'm back to "Gesundheit!"

I appreciate your calling attention to "passed on" and "passed away" because I never liked the phrases even when I was a Christian. I think even then I felt it was too evasive - it trivializes death. Even for a Christian, death is real and painful; why did we have to duck it? (and yeah, i know that Christians try to evade death's sting of grief, but they still feel it) Actually that annoyance with ducking hard realities is part of what ultimately led me to becoming an atheist.

I know we disagree about the term "spiritual," but only partly because a year ago we would have agreed completely. I have no use whatsoever for apologizing to Christians for my atheism - the whole "spiritual but not religious" thing makes me cringe. And my comment here is that I would never say, "I'm an atheist, but I'm spiritual." because that "but" sounds like some kind of an apology, no matter to whom it is said. What I've found, however, is that pagans and Wiccans can misconstrue what the word "atheist" means. And, yeah, I get how you think it's semantically lazy to say something like "spiritually-open atheist" but it gets its point across for introductions and then I subsequently ditch the spirit language in favor of more accurate terms. By that time, folks know me and understand what I'm about.