Hypnosis has been a taboo word for far too long. And many people see it in a mystical light.

一直以来，“催眠”这个词都似乎很忌讳，也有些人觉得催眠很神奇。

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Taboo words can be mildly offensive to extremely offensive, and people will often use a more mild euphemism to replace a swear word when in mixed (or unknown) company.

禁忌词汇的程度可能从轻度污蔑到严重污蔑，人们一般常会在复杂(或者不明)的场合下，用温和些的婉转语来代替粗口。

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Problems arise from a perspective that "potential is a taboo or code word for failure."

这种“潜力是一种禁忌或失败的代名词”的观点，很容易出现问题。

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The French word for austerity, rigueur, remains taboo on both left and right.

ECONOMIST: France's public finances

And for the record, I'm using the word gay interchangeably with homosexual for the sake of conversation, because it really is a shame for perfectly good word pertaining to happiness to get associated it with the cultural taboo.

NPR: Year in Review: Homosexuality in the Headlines