>The desire to sanitize language 1984 style is baffling... If you go back to my original comment, you'll see that I wasn't making a judgement on whether such s

>The desire to sanitize language 1984 style is baffling... If you go back to my original comment, you'll see that I wasn't making a judgement on whether such sanitization was a good idea, but described the perfectly rational reason someone might promote it (no 1984 Orwellian motives required). >Because that is a useful word. Now you're getting to the actual point. Is it always a useful word? If there were an exemplary employee at your business, who had worked there for 20 years and was professional and productive, would you describe him to someone else as a felon or would you (assuming the subject came up), merely note that he had committed a felony? And do you see the difference between the two in the way a third party would interpret your comment?