Some would say we live in the scientific era.
However, is our vocabulary also more scientific?
Perhaps we have become smarter in some ways, but less so, in other ways?
Those who grew up interacting with fellow neighbors, daily, had to get along with each other, and so, their vocabulary could not be hurtful.
Thus, there was a type of feedback mechanism to ensure that words - "oral" - based words, if you will, remained largely respectful.
However, as we migrated more and more to urban areas, there was more indirect interacting, and this feedback mechanism started to break.
Oral communications were replaced with written, symbolic communications. Such that, if a word was disrespectful, or otherwise inaccurate about others, it was not met with the same degree of negative feedback.
This arguably is one of the most important losses in Mankind, as he or she migrated to urban areas, arguably. We became more and more capable of isolating from each other, yet able to communicate indirectly, so to speak.
This author maintains that we suffered greatly, then, regarding our vocabulary.