Innocuous words are the ones that innocently induct personality traits. I.e, the lovely nickname "Baby" that you can give to your significant other is creating a metaphorical identification. A baby is a human to whom you can gives traits such as "dependant", "helpless", and who "relies on others". "Baby" as an innocuous word will insidiously infer those personnality traits, because the person will integrate that he/she is a "baby".