Respect

The word "respect" means so many things to so many people that it's lost nearly all meaning. Worse, it's often used as a cudgel (which is a shame for such a lovely word). I'm not normally a fan of twee Tumblr-ish ponderings, but the following, from this Tmblr, transcends the genre:

Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority”

and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person”

and they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.