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Topic : Words we may believe are neutral yet have restricted connotations Edit: Perhaps a list of words prone to mis-use would serve the need, here. Is anyone aware of a resource that lists - selfpublishingguru.com

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Edit:
Perhaps a list of words prone to mis-use would serve the need, here.

Is anyone aware of a resource that lists words with emotional baggage?

Example: I use the expression 'enormity of x' (as in, the enormity of time since the big bang.)

Someone mentioned to me that the word 'enormity' is associated with negative actions, like crimes. And indeed, Merriam Webster agrees. This is the first awareness I've had of that connotation.

Enormousness seems like an awkward alternative word. To many 's's' not crisp enough. Is 'immensity' laden with baggage?

Is there a resource of such words that may have pigeonholed usage? This is a hard question because every word has a flavor. I have to wonder if the sciences use 'enormity' in a neutral way and if that may be how I learned the word.

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As a practical matter google's "define: [word]" will usually give you a sense of the emotional baggage heavy enough to affect the meanings.

Not sure of an easy way to check if the connotations match without having a beta reader point it out or looking it up, though, sorry. You could limit your writing to words with connotations you feel rock solid about (the highlight of Munroe's Thing Explainer is certainly its limited vocabulary) and many people do prefer lucid over complex prose anyway, but that can be less fun ;)

(To me time is more 2D than 3D, so I'd say something like "extensive time" (or interminable to be more humorous) instead of immensity or enormity. Enormous doesn't have the same bad connotations as enormity which may be why enormity escaped your notice)

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Many, if not all, words can have emotional baggage.

Words can have many different, and sometimes opposite connotations, and different situtations, places, countries, etc. can give different connotations to the same words.

Colours are the simplest example. Red can mean 'passion', 'danger', 'love', 'blood', and 'special'. White is used for weddings in some cultures; for funerals in others.

Words don't 'pigeonholded usage'; they have culturally defined meanings. These meanings are, in post-modernist parlance, infinitely deferred.

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