Euphemism

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contraceptives
  • vaginal douches
  • menstrual pads and tampons
  • adult diapers

    • A euphemism (/ˈjuːfəmɪzəm/ YOO-fə-miz-əm) is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant.[1] Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes to downplay. Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to topics some consider taboo such as mental or physical disability, sexual intercourse, bodily excretions, pain, violence, illness, or death in a polite way.[2]

    Etymology

    Euphemism comes from the

    ancient Greeks; with the meaning "to keep a holy silence" (speaking well by not speaking at all).[4]

    Purpose

    Avoidance

    Reasons for using euphemisms vary by context and intent. Commonly, euphemisms are used to avoid directly addressing subjects that might be deemed negative or embarrassing, e.g., death, sex, excretory bodily functions. They may be created for innocent, well-intentioned purposes or nefariously and cynically, intentionally to deceive, confuse or deny. Euphemisms which emerge as dominant social euphemisms are often created to serve progressive causes.[5][6]

    Mitigation

    Euphemisms are also used to mitigate, soften or downplay the gravity of large-scale injustices, war crimes, or other events that warrant a pattern of avoidance in official statements or documents. For instance, one reason for the comparative scarcity of written evidence documenting the exterminations at

    Auschwitz, relative to their sheer number, is "directives for the extermination process obscured in bureaucratic euphemisms".[7] Another example of this is during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his speech starting the invasion, called the invasion a "special military operation".[8]

    Euphemisms are sometimes used to lessen the opposition to a political move. For example, according to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the neutral Hebrew lexical item פעימות peimót (literally 'beatings (of the heart)'), rather than נסיגה nesigá ('withdrawal'), to refer to the stages in the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank (see Wye River Memorandum), in order to lessen the opposition of right-wing Israelis to such a move.[9] Peimót was thus used as a euphemism for 'withdrawal'.[9]: 181 

    Rhetoric

    Euphemism may be used as a

    rhetorical strategy, in which case its goal is to change the valence of a description.[clarification needed
    ]

    Controversial use

    Using a euphemism can in itself be controversial, as in the following examples:

    • Reproductive health is used as a euphemism for the medical procedure of abortion, often employed for political reasons.[10] Many pro-abortion institutions now advocate using the term "abortion" instead of relying on euphemisms in order to earn greater social acceptance of the procedure.[11]
    • positive discrimination, which suggests an intentional bias that might be legally prohibited, or otherwise unpalatable.[12]
    • David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility".[13]

    Online

    The use of euphemism online is known as "algospeak" when used to evade automated online moderation techniques used on Meta and TikTok's platforms.[14][15][16][17][18] Algospeak has been used in debate about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[19][20]

    Formation methods

    Pronunciation (phonetic modification)

    Phonetic euphemism is used to replace profanities and blasphemies, diminishing their intensity. To alter the pronunciation or spelling of a taboo word (such as a

    swear word) to form a euphemism is known as taboo deformation, or a minced oath
    . Such modifications include:

    Understatement

    Euphemisms formed from understatements include asleep for dead and drinking for consuming alcohol. "Tired and emotional" is a notorious British euphemism for "drunk", one of many recurring jokes popularized by the satirical magazine Private Eye; it has been used by MPs to avoid unparliamentary language.

    Substitution

    Pleasant, positive, worthy, neutral, or nondescript terms are often substituted for explicit or unpleasant ones, with many substituted terms deliberately coined by sociopolitical movements, marketing, public relations, or advertising initiatives, including:

    • meat packing company for 'slaughterhouse' (avoids entirely the subject of killing); natural issue or love child for 'bastard'; let go for 'fired/sacked', etc.

    Some examples of Cockney rhyming slang may serve the same purpose: to call a person a berk sounds less offensive than to call a person a cunt, though berk is short for Berkeley Hunt,[21] which rhymes with cunt.[22]

    Metaphor

    • Metaphors (beat the meat, choke the chicken, or jerkin' the gherkin for 'masturbation'; take a dump and take a leak for 'defecation' and 'urination', respectively)
    • Comparisons (buns for 'buttocks', weed for 'cannabis')
    • Metonymy (men's room for 'men's restroom/toilet')

    Slang

    See also: Slang

    The use of a term with a softer connotation, though it shares the same meaning. For instance, screwed up is a euphemism for 'fucked up'; hook-up and laid are euphemisms for 'sexual intercourse'.

    Foreign words

    Expressions or words from a foreign language may be imported for use as euphemism. For example, the French word enceinte was sometimes used instead of the English word pregnant;

    businessman, adds glamour; douche (French for 'shower') for vaginal irrigation device; bidet ('little pony') for vessel for anal washing. Ironically, although in English physical "handicaps" are almost always described with euphemism, in French the English word handicap is used as a euphemism for their problematic words infirmité or invalidité.[citation needed
    ]

    Periphrasis/circumlocution

    Periphrasis, or circumlocution, is one of the most common: to "speak around" a given word, implying it without saying it. Over time, circumlocutions become recognized as established euphemisms for particular words or ideas.

    Doublespeak

    Main article: Doublespeak

    Nuremberg Trials.[28]

    Lifespan

    Negro is an example of a once-innocuous euphemism that has become outdated and offensive.

    Frequently, over time, euphemisms themselves become taboo words, through the linguistic process of

    pejoration, which University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor dubbed the "euphemism cycle" in 1974,[29] also frequently referred to as the "euphemism treadmill". For instance, the place of human defecation is a needy candidate for a euphemism in all eras. Toilet is an 18th-century euphemism, replacing the older euphemism house-of-office, which in turn replaced the even older euphemisms privy-house and bog-house.[30] In the 20th century, where the old euphemisms lavatory (a place where one washes) and toilet (a place where one dresses[31]) had grown from widespread usage (e.g., in the United States) to being synonymous with the crude act they sought to deflect, they were sometimes replaced with bathroom (a place where one bathes), washroom (a place where one washes), or restroom (a place where one rests) or even by the extreme form powder room (a place where one applies facial cosmetics).[citation needed] The form water closet, often shortened to W.C., is a less deflective form.[citation needed] The word shit appears to have originally been a euphemism for defecation in Pre-Germanic, as the Proto-Indo-European root *sḱeyd-, from which it was derived, meant 'to cut off'.[32]

    Another example in American English is the replacement of "

    people of color".[33]

    three-letter initialism "STD" (sexually transmitted disease); later, "STD" was replaced by "STI" (sexually transmitted infection).[34]

    Intellectually-disabled people were originally defined with words such as "morons" or "imbeciles", which then became commonly used insults. The medical diagnosis was changed to "mentally retarded", which morphed into

    better source needed] As of August 2013, the Social Security Administration replaced the term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability".[36] Since 2012, that change in terminology has been adopted by the National Institutes of Health and the medical industry at large.[37] There are numerous disability-related euphemisms that have negative connotations
    .

    See also

    References

    1. ^ "Euphemism". Webster's Online Dictionary. Archived from the original on 28 July 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
    2. ^ "euphemism (n.)". Etymonline.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
    3. ^ "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, φήμη". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
    4. ^ "'Euphemism' Etymology". Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
    5. ^ "How strategic lingo swallowed progressive thought". Washington Examiner. 19 May 2023.
    6. ^ "THE MORAL CASE AGAINST EQUITY LANGUAGE". The Atlantic. 2 March 2023.
    7. ^ Ryback, Timothy (15 November 1993). "Evidence of Evil". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
    8. ^ "Year in a word: 'Special operation'". Financial Times. 29 December 2022.
    9. ^ a b Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. p. 181.
    10. ^ Lowry, Rich (2 May 2013). "The euphemism imperative". Politico. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023.
    11. ^ "Just say abortion". Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts. 14 June 2021. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024.
    12. ^ Affirmative action as euphemism:
    13. ^ Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:
    14. ^ Lorenz, Taylor (8 April 2022). "Internet 'algospeak' is changing our language in real time, from 'nip nops' to 'le dollar bean'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
    15. ^ Kreuz, Roger J. (13 April 2023). "What is 'algospeak'? Inside the newest version of linguistic subterfuge". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 6 February 2024.
    16. ^ Tellez, Anthony (31 January 2023). "'Mascara,' 'Unalive,' 'Corn': What Common Social Media Algospeak Words Actually Mean". Forbes. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023.
    17. ^ Levine, Alexandra S. (19 September 2022). "From Camping to Cheese Pizza, 'Algospeak' is Taking over Social Media". Forbes. Archived from the original on 31 October 2023.
    18. S2CID 258377709
      .
    19. ^ Nix, Naomi (20 October 2023). "Pro-Palestinian creators use secret spellings, code words to evade social media algorithms". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
    20. ^ "How pro-Palestinians are using 'Algospeak' to dodge social media scrutiny and disseminate hateful rhetoric". Fox News. 23 October 2023.
    21. ^ although properly pronounced in upper-class British-English "barkley"
    22. ^ "definition of 'berk'/'burk'". Collins Dictionary. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
    23. ^ "Definition of enceinte". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
    24. ^ McCool, W.C. (6 February 1957). Return of Rongelapese to their Home Island – Note by the Secretary (PDF) (Report). United States Atomic Energy Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 September 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
    25. ISBN 9780805082487
      – via Internet Archive.
    26. ISBN 006092103X
      .
    27. ^ "Holocaust-history.org". Holocaust-History.org. Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
    28. ^ "Wannsee Conference and the 'Final Solution'". Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
    29. JSTOR 3087798
      .
    30. ^ Bell, Vicars Walker (1953). On Learning the English Tongue. Faber & Faber. p. 19. The Honest Jakes or Privy has graduated via Offices to the final horror of Toilet.
    31. ^ French toile, fabric, a form of curtain behind which washing, dressing and hair-dressing were performed (Larousse, Dictionnaire de la langue française, "Lexis", Paris, 1979, p. 1891)
    32. ISBN 9780199552290
      .
    33. ^ a b Demby, Gene (7 November 2014). "Why We Have So Many Terms for 'People of Color'". NPR. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
    34. ^ "STI vs. STD: Overcoming the Stigma". PowerToDecide.org. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
    35. ^ Hodges, Rick (1 July 2020). "The Rise and Fall of 'Mentally Retarded'". Medium. Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
    36. ^ "Change in Terminology: 'Mental Retardation' to 'Intellectual Disability'". Federal Register. 1 August 2013. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
    37. PMID 23372396
      .

    Further reading

    External links

    • The dictionary definition of euphemism at Wiktionary
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Euphemism&oldid=1218634370"