Verbicide is a noun that’s been in use since 1858. But it came to my attention in a piece by C. S. Lewis (in his Studies in Words). According to Merriam-Webster, verbicide is … 1: deliberate distortion or destruction of the sense of a word 2: one who distorts or destroys the sense of a word

Lewis wrote, “The greatest cause of verbicide is the fact that most people are obviously far more anxious to express their approval and disapproval of things than to describe them.”

Lewis died some 60 years ago, but I’d say not much has changed, particularly in public discourse.