My bet is that it's the other way around. It's not that the word 'deficit' makes people scared, it's that scared people prefer to justify their helplessness by saying 'deficit' and other scary words.
There are people who want others to support them and they know they can't just say "raise your taxes and feed me". That's why they take America's 'capital surplus', call it 'trade deficit', and scream 'anyone who doesn't feed me is a traitor!'.
The root of most economic idiocy is Goldbugism.
And Goldbugism is a complex, and quite old, psychological disease. It's based on a sort of child-like obsession with the idea of gold being "real" and a distruct of things perceived as "not real" and also harkens back to the very old American political trope of suspicion of "Eastern Bankers."
E.g., as translated, "We faux free traders are people who want others to support us, and we know we can't just say "destroy your self-preparedness, and entwine and massively encumber our government's (State & Federal) with debt owed to foreign enemy nations, and debase the currency, savings and meanwhile insure and subsidize me while I do all this outsourcing."
And that's how they take a massive trade deficit, call it a "capital surplus" LOL!!!!!!!! and scream "anyone who doesn't salute our Free Trade flag and continue to subsidize us is a traitor to the ideals of...Alexander Hamilton! No, that's not right. A traitor to the ideals and economics of George Washington. No, that's not right. A traitor to the ideals and economics of Theodore Roosevelt. No, guess that's not right. A traitor to the ideals and economics of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Bill Xlinton. There. That's right. Thaaaaat's the ticket. Anybody who opposes those ideals can't be conservative....