@flutherother I never thought about that either! Umm… There are so many words whose etymologies really bring out what the word means— matrimony for example. This is one of my favorite web sites.
This is not exactly about weaponized language, but an interesting occurrence along the same lines of discussions about power… Yesterday, we had an assembly where the purpose of different organizations was shared with the students. One student (one that planned to bomb our school, actually) turned to me and said, “It’s sad that we have to have organizations to advance our causes. We have to depend on organizations?!?” I explained to him that minorities often have to have organizations because of their positions in society, that women outnumber men, but because of the lack of political power, they have organizations and that the political systems look at numbers before listening. He got really upset and said that was completely stupid—why is a group’s voice more valid than an individual’s?? I could only reply, “Good point.”
Then he said, “Umm… so… if all of us got together, would that mean all the white men who are Protestant, rich and have nothing ‘wrong’ with them would be way outnumbered?” Yep.