I must comment on the Holocaust word. I am not Jewish but I've read extensively about the Holocaust and it was rather unique in human history - not because of how many people were killed, but because of the intellectualized and "scientific" nature of the torture and murder employed. To work someone to death rather than just put them to death is cold and cruel to begin with, but if you look at the terminology the Nazis used, the way they spoke even of children, and the extent and bureaucracy of the death machinery, the fact that humans were experimented on in labs and treated worse than rats- there was a COLDNESS and detachment not often seen in genocide. We analyzed some of the Third Reich memos about the camps in one of my linguistics classes - the language would chill your soul because it was like they were talking about salt shakers or widgets not humans.

I maintain that the Holocaust was a unique event in human history. It is not appropriate to use the word in any other sense or for any other historical crime. Language matters. Taking away the power of the word is not okay.