Yeah, the emotional impact of words is interesting, because often the impact isn't exactly rational. For example, I speak and understand French very well, well enough to watch films without subtitles and have long conversations on even deep topics without much difficulty. But I can swear in French without feeling anything. I learned the hard way that the Canadian French profanity Tabernak (which means the tabernacle associated with Catholic religious services) is deeply offensive, enough to elicit a gasp in the wrong setting. To me it's just a charming colloquialism, but to many, it's an unacceptable, taboo, swear word.

On the other hand, the French have an adjective that means literally, fucked, that they use as a mild explitive, but that is not taboo. I mean, you wouldn't hear it in a formal setting, but I've heard parents use it around their small children when they would never, ever say tabernak in front of their kids.

Oddly, c*nt in American English is totally taboo, with a very high emotion quotient. Dick is not. But in Bristish English, c*nt is not taboo. It's vulgar, like dick is American English and like that word for fucked is in French, but you can say it in the right setting, including during "civilized" debate in Parliament, where you're not allowed to observe that the Prime Minister is lying, even when he clearly is.

For some reason, words like spazz and retard, which carry little emotional weight for me or most Americans, even if we avoid saying them, have become taboo in British English, in a way that transcends the reasons for why. They've taken on the status of serious profanities, like Tabernak has in Canadian French.