R: query: distorted languages?

Yoon wrote:

>  It seemed to me that maybe people would
> stop using particular ideologically-charged words (I have a 1960's German
> grammar and I know every time *I* see "Fuehrer" for "taxi driver" I
> jump), but wouldn't people just damp down those connotations over time,
> or shift to alternate vocabulary?
Well, the problem with 'Führer' is that, unlike Italian 'duce', which is an
adapted reborrowing from Latin 'dux', the word is one of those very mucj
used words in the Languge (Mark Twain wrote:>> There are some exceedingly
useful words in this language. SCHLAG, for example; and ZUG.  There are
three-quarters of a column of SCHLAGS in the dictonary, and a column and a
half of ZUGS.  The word SCHLAG means Blow, Stroke, Dash, Hit, Shock, Clap,
Slap, Time, Bar, Coin, Stamp, Kind, Sort, Manner, Way, Apoplexy,
Wood-cutting, Enclosure, Field, Forest-clearing.<< You can add Führer as
well!). My oldest German dictionary (1937) says: Führer = 1 driver, guide. 2
head, chief. 3 pilot. And then there are thousand of compunds: 'Zugführer,
Wagenführer, Schiffsführer, Flugzeugführer...'. I don't see why they
should've replaced a so powerful word.

Luca