If a three-year-old tries to punch you, you're not worried. You don't call the police, because they don't have the capability to hurt you. You can see they're upset, and you talk to them about why.
But if a 55-year-old Kung Fu expert tries to punch you, you run, you scream, you call the police, you do everything you possibly can, because the damage they can do is unlimited.
A simple word can be either one, depending on how much trapped trauma there is in you behind it. When there's that much behind it, one word lights up everything, and you feel so much pain that you have to defend yourself, scream for help and point out the attack.
When there's nothing inside you to add to it, it hits empty space. It misses you.
You don't need to scream attack. You don't need to defend yourself. You don't need to attack them back, because nothing happened. There was nothing for them to hit.