So many words. So many traps. The “Civil War,” except where it is called the “War between the States.” Or Mark Twain’s vocabulary, which one publishing house decided to revise. The Indians or the Native Americans. Words identify loyalties, localities and politics.

Recently an old word crept into Republicans’ speeches. It didn’t hit my wariness button until I heard our own Mitt Romney use it. (Is Romney ours anymore? Does his two-bedroom condo in Belmont count if he has one huge house in La Jolla and another on Lake Winnipesaukee?)

But back to the word. It’s “exceptional.” Tocqueville famously described America as such. But its use has been uncommon in recent decades. So after hearing “exceptional” several times, I thought the speakers repeated the word because their vocabulary was limited.

Then it became clear. It was code. It was like the noun “Democrat,” which Republicans use as an adjective, as in “Patrick is a Democrat governor.” That awkward and unattractive phrasing makes the speakers appear ignorant of English grammar.

But actually they aren’t. It’s an insult.

Now we have “exceptional”, which must mean we’re God’s chosen people, the best and the brightest, the most wonderful people in the world, or that we must fulfill our manifest destiny.

Why is one party now using the word?  It’s a response to Obama’s foreign policy, which sees us as part of a global community rather than having a responsibility to lead the world, said Todd Domke, a local GOP strategist.

“It suggests that Obama is not sufficiently patriotic,” he said. “It’s shorthand for defining the U.S. as having a special character with a special purpose.”

Never mind that this kind of swagger was the premise on which a 1950s book, “The Ugly American,” was based.

Never mind that the way it is being used carries an ominous undertone. If you don’t use the word, you’re clearly not a real American.

Remarkably, however, all of us would probably agree that America is exceptional. It’s a pretty exceptional country that, despite its ugly history of enslaving Africans, elects a black man as President. Let’s hear it for exceptionalism.

You can find out about our exceptionalism in “The Economist’s Pocket World in Figures, 2011 Edition.” We have the fourth largest land area. Our Mississippi river system is the fourth longest. Our population is the third largest.

Pretty exceptional.

Our quality of life, unfortunately, could use some work. Honolulu, the only American city that ranked, came in at 31, under Ottawa, Dusseldorf and Stockholm, a city who no one employing the word “exceptional” wants to mention since it’s populated by socialists.

Our living standards spell trouble too, down at 8 in the “economic freedom index,” and 13 in the “human development index.” Number 1 in that index is another socialist country, Norway. We don’t live as long, either, ranking 32, below Sweden again, but even more embarrassingly, Italy, Cyprus and Greece, where they surely drive faster and take bigger risks than we do. And our kids do exceptionally badly on math and reading tests compared to the rest of the world.

Maybe our quality of life is a problem, but we sure know how to run an economy. Ours is first in the world—more than three times that of anywhere else. Those Swedes rank 22, so they can’t be that smart. The U.S. is the world’s second biggest exporter, a surprise since our trade deficit is high. Except for coffee and tea, we’re in the top five in every category for the amount of grain, metals or other commodities we produce.

We top everyone but France in the number of foreign tourists. The food is probably still better in France than it is here, but it’s hard to see how a small country with no deserts, fewer mountains and a language that is no longer the lingua franca would attract more tourists than we do.

We understand American exceptionalism even more when we focus on Massachusetts’s exceptionalism. We’re richer, better educated, and more employed than other American states. And Massachusetts does better in health too. America ranks 30^th in the world, down with Slovakia and Poland, and worse than Cuba, in keeping babies alive through their first year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But Massachusetts recently has had the lowest infant-mortality rate in the U.S. “Parents” magazine, which ranked Boston in the best 10 American cities in which to raise children, attributed our good infant health to Romneycare.

So, Mitt, go ahead and repeat the word “exceptional.” You deserve to. You’re the reason Massachusetts is exceptional in infant health, and we really appreciate it. Our new national health care plan is based upon Romneycare. When it is fully operational and America’s babies are as healthy as Cuba’s, you can brag about how that achievement of yours has helped make America so exceptional.