Reader question:

What is a loaded word? Please give examples.

My comments:

Loaded words, by definition, are those that have "more meaning, especially a negative meaning, than you first think" (Longman).

Like a loaded truck, a loaded word or statement is heavy with subtle connotations. And like a loaded gun, it can be hurtful.

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last month likened electing Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, to putting an "intern" in the White House, he used a loaded word.

Yes, you guessed it. "Intern" has become a loaded word in US politics thanks (and no thanks, according to Hillary) to the well-documented rendezvous in the Oval Office involving then President Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband, and Monica Lewinsky, an intern.

In China, "Party member" is said to have become a loaded word, especially among non members. People, for example, no longer list "Party membership" as a primary consideration for marriage, as they used to do in the 1960's and 70's. In fact, people these days are said to bristle at the question: "Are you a Party member?" That sounds an innocuous question, I know, but somehow some people sometimes get offended by it. To them, it's a loaded question. Perhaps they have something to hide. At any rate, it's no use asking me that question. I'm not a Party member. I'm not even a dancing party member.

Anyways, a loaded question, sometimes known as a leading question, is one that's designed to lead people to a certain answer. It's unfair. The most well-known loaded questions are of the type that lawyers ask in court, such as: "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" It's the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't question that has the defendant pinned and framed. It's unfair.

Why wife beating, why not husband beating? Aren't armies of Chinese husbands henpecked anyway? OK. Let's ask the same question again just to be fair to the fair sex. "Have you stopped beating your husband yet?"

Little use asking, either, because a Chinese wife whose hubby is henpecked would have a ready answer for that one. They'd reply with their head held high: "He deserves it."

He "deserves" it? Now, that's another loaded word.

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.