Connotation

Listening to my Russian Intourist interpreter speaking over a period of days in Moscow in 1993, I slowly realized that her use of the English word "reform" had no connotation of improvement. She simply meant "change," as in the reform of one government program to another or one chairman reforming the programs of his predecessor. Having always thought of reform as improvement, I just made the mental note that this was not necessarily so in her narrative.

I sometimes wonder whether we are using the word "reform" too loosely now in describing sweeping changes in policies and programs, especially at the federal level of government, especially when a program is headed by a "czar."