the difference between someone with power and someone who seems helpless can be small! Some words and phrases are incendiary. The verbal equivalent of hand grenades. The literary version of land mines. We only have to hear them, say them, read them or write them. Some, indeed, are so potent they don't even need to be articulated. They can simply be implied. All that's fair enough if we know their identity and can consciously avoid them. It's a bit of a rum do though, if we are unaware of someone's sensitivity and inadvertently trigger an unexpected response.