Yep, I accidentally used the word ‘benevolent’ when referring to Hitler when that was not what I meant. (Read column here). Fortunately, a very friendly lady pointed out my mistake in a “Letter to the Editor” and in doing so, only called me “stupid” like three or four times. Apparently, despite her excellent vocabulary, the only words she knows for unintelligent are “stupid” and “dumb”. It’s probably because all of the people she hangs out with are sheer, mistake-free geniuses so that she never has to use words that mean “unintelligent”.
And it wasn’t my fault. I had initially written “tyrannical dictator”, but Charlie Manuel replaced “tyrannical” with “benevolent” in the fourth inning!