Does 'scheme' have a negative connotation for you?

I find the concept of “Scheme” to be no more negative than the idea behind any LISP implementation or derivative. :smiley:

My favorite example of the British neutral/positive usage is the old All-Up Empire Tuppence Airmail Scheme. Cite. Another cite.(Can’t seem to find a cite for the 2p/tuppence part, though.)

Any word can have positive or negative connotations depending on the context, just like “scheme”.

  1. My wife is always scheming to get me to repaint things.
  2. I depend on her to help plan the color scheme.

Surely most words don’t have so much context-dependence, that’s why “scheme” is rather unusual and merits this discussion.

This particular word tends to have more negative connotations depending on which side of the Atlantic you are.