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Euphemism is a substitution for an expression that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the receiver using instead an agreeable or less offensive expression1 or to make it less troublesome for the speaker.

Some euphemisms are intended to amuse while others are created to mislead. Contents 1 Usage 2 Etymology 2.1 Categorizing euphemisms 3 Evolution of euphemisms 3.1 Euphemism treadmill 4 Euphemisms for disability and handicap 5 Euphemisms for the profane 5.1 Religious euphemisms 5.2 Excretory euphemisms 5.3 Sexual euphemisms 5.4 Euphemisms referring to profanity itself 6 Euphemisms for death and murder 7 Euphemisms for warfare 8 Euphemisms in job titles 9 Doublespeak 10 Common examples 11 See also 12 References 13 Further reading Usage

When a phrase is used as a euphemism it often becomes a metaphor whose literal meaning is dropped. Euphemisms may be used to hide unpleasant or disturbing ideas even when the literal term for them is not necessarily offensive. This type of euphemism is used in public relations and politics where it is sometimes called doublespeak. Sometimes the use of euphemisms is equated to politeness. There are also superstitious euphemisms based (consciously or subconsciously) on the idea that words have the power to bring bad fortune and there are religious euphemisms based on the idea that some words are holy or that some words are spiritually perilous (taboo; see etymology). Etymology

The word euphemism comes from the Greek word (euphemia) meaning "the use of words of good omen" which in turn is derived from the Greek root-words eu () "good/well" + pheme () "speech/speaking". The eupheme was originally a word or phrase used in place of a religious word or phrase that should not be spoken aloud; etymologically the eupheme is the opposite of the blaspheme (evil-speaking). Primary examples of taboo words requiring the use of a euphemism are names for deities such as Persephone Hecate or Nemesis. The term euphemism itself was used as a euphemism by the ancient Greeks meaning 'to keep a holy silence' (speaking well by not speaking at all).

Historical linguistics has revealed traces of taboo deformations in many languages. Several are known to have occurred in Indo-European languages including the presumed original Proto-Indo-European words for bear (*rkso) wolf (*wlkwo) and deer (originally hart -- although the word hart remained commonplace in parts of England until the 20th century as is witnessed by the widespread use of the pub sign The White Hart). In different Indo-European languages each of these words has a difficult etymology because of taboo deformations a euphemism was substituted for the original which no longer occurs in the language. An example is the Slavic root for bear *medu-ed- which means "honey eater". Names in Germanic languagesincluding Englishare derived from the color brown. Another example in English is "donkey" replacing the old Indo-European-derived word "ass". The word "dandelion" (literally tooth of lion referring to the shape of the leaves) is another example being a substitute for pissenlit meaning "wet the bed" a possible reference to the fact that dandelion was used as a diuretic. The Talmud describes the blind as having "much light" (Aramaic ) 2 and this phrase - sagee nahor - is the modern Hebrew for euphemism.

In some languages of the Pacific using the name of a deceased chief is taboo. Among indigenous Australians it is forbidden to use the name image or audio-visual recording of the deceased so that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation now publishes a warning to indigenous Australians when using names images or audio-visual recordings of people who have died.3

Since people are often named after everyday things this leads to the swift development of euphemisms as new names are frequently required for these things when the old word becomes taboo.example needed These languages have a very high rate of vocabulary change.4

In a similar manner in imperial China writers of classical Chinese texts were expected to avoid using characters contained within the name of the currently ruling emperor as a sign of respect. In these instances the relevant characters were replaced by synonyms. (This practice may provide a fairly accurate means of dating a document.)

The common names of illicit drugs and the plants used to obtain them often undergo a process similar to taboo deformation because new terms are devised in order to discuss them secretly in the presence of others. This process often occurs in English (e.g. speed or crank for meth) and is really slang formation as it often is not intended to substitute a softer term. It occurs even more in Spanish e.g. the deformation of names for cannabis: mota (literally "something which moves" on the black market) replacing grifa (literally "something coarse to the touch") replacing marihuana (a female personal name Mara Juana) replacing camo (the original Spanish name for the plant derived from the Latin genus name Cannabis). All four of these names are still used in various parts of the Hispanophone world although camo ironically has the least underworld connotation and is often used to describe industrial hemp or legitimate medically-prescribed cannabis. Categorizing euphemisms Abstractions and ambiguities (it for excrement the situation for pregnancy going to the other side for death do it or come together in reference to a sexual act tired and emotional for drunkenness.) Indirections (behind unmentionables privates live together go to the bathroom sleep together) Mispronunciation (goldarnit dadgummit efing c freakin be-atchshoot see minced oath) Litotes or reserved understatement (not exactly thin for "fat" not completely truthful for "lied" not unlike cheating for "an instance of cheating") Changing nouns to modifiers: e.g. ...makes her look slutty for "...is a slut" right-wing element for "Right Wing") Personal names such as John Thomas or Willy for "penis" Fanny for "vulva" (British English). Slang e.g. pot for "cannabis" laid for "having sexual intercourse" and so on. There is some disagreement over whether certain terms are or are not euphemisms. For example sometimes the phrase visually impaired is labeled as a politically correct euphemism for blind. However visual impairment can be a broader term including for example people who have partial sight in one eye or even those with uncorrected mild to moderate poor vision a group that would be excluded by the word blind. There are three antonyms of euphemism: dysphemism cacophemism and power word. The first can be either offensive or merely humorously deprecating with the second one generally used more often in the sense of something deliberately offensive. The last is used mainly in arguments to make a point seem more correct. Evolution of euphemisms Euphemisms may be formed in a number of ways. 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. To alter the pronunciation or spelling of a taboo word (such as a swear word) to form a euphemism is known as taboo deformation. There is an astonishing number of taboo deformations in English of which many refer to the infamous four-letter words. In American English words which are unacceptable on television such as fuck may be represented by deformations such as freak even in children's cartoons. Some examples of rhyming slang may serve the same purpose to call a person a berk sounds less offensive than to call him a cunt though berk is short for Berkeley Hunt which rhymes with cunt. Bureaucracies such as the military and large corporations frequently spawn euphemisms of a more deliberate nature. Organizations coin doublespeak expressions to describe objectionable actions in terms that seem neutral or inoffensive. For example a term used in the past for contamination by radioactive isotopes was Sunshine units.5 Military organizations kill people sometimes deliberately and sometimes by mistake; in doublespeak the first may be called neutralizing the target or Employing Kinetic Effects and the second collateral damage. Violent destruction of non-state enemies may be referred to as pacification. Two common terms when a soldier is accidentally killed (buys the farm) by their own side are friendly fire or blue on blue (BOBbing) "buy the farm" has its own interesting history.6 Execution is an established euphemism referring to the act of putting a person to death with or without judicial process. It originally referred to the execution i.e. the carrying out of a death warrant which is an authorization to a sheriff prison warden or other official to put a named person to death. In legal usage execution can still refer to the carrying out of other types of orders; for example in U.S. legal usage a writ of execution is a direction to enforce a civil money judgment by seizing property. Likewise lethal injection itself may be considered a euphemism for putting the convict to death by poisoning. Abortion originally meant premature birth and came to mean birth before viability. The term "abort" was extended to mean any kind of premature ending such as aborting the launch of a rocket. Euphemisms have developed around the original meaning. Abortion by itself came to mean induced abortion or elective abortion exclusively. Hence the parallel term spontaneous abortion an "act of nature" was dropped in favor of the more neutral-sounding miscarriage. Industrial unpleasantness such as pollution may be toned down to outgassing or runoff descriptions of physical processes rather than their damaging consequences. Some of this may simply be the application of precise technical terminology in the place of popular usage but beyond precision the advantage of technical terminology may be its lack of emotional undertones and the likelihood that the general public (at least initially) will not recognize it for what it really is; the disadvantage being the lack of real-life context. Terms like "waste" and "wastewater" are also avoided in favor of terms such as byproduct recycling reclaimed water and effluent. In the oil industry oil-based drilling muds were simply renamed organic phase drilling muds where organic phase is a euphemism for "oil". Euphemism treadmill Euphemisms often evolve over time into taboo words themselves through a process described by W.V.O. Quine7 and more recently dubbed the "euphemism treadmill" by Steven Pinker8 discussed in his The Blank Slate (2003)9 and The Stuff of Thought (2007)10 (cf. Gresham's Law in economics). This is the well-known linguistic process known as 'pejoration' or 'semantic change'. Words originally intended as euphemisms may lose their euphemistic value acquiring the negative connotations of their referents. In some cases they may be used mockingly and become dysphemisms. Euphemisms related to disabilities have been prone to this (see below). In his remarks on the ever-changing London slang made in Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell mentioned both the euphemism treadmill and the dysphemism treadmill. He did not use these now-established terms but observed and commented on the respective processes as early as in 1933. Where the words "lavatory" or "toilet" were deemed inappropriate they were sometimes replaced with "bathroom" or "water closet" which in turn became simply "restroom" or "W.C." These are also examples of geographic concentration: the term restroom is an Americanism rarely used outside the United States11 while washroom is a Canadian euphemism.12 The term "W.C." was previously quite popular in the United Kingdom but is passing out of favor there while becoming more popular in France Germany the Netherlands and Hungary as the polite term of choice.citation needed The word "sex" which originally meant simply "male or female" has acquired an additional meaning of "sexual intercourse". This may have led to "sex" being replaced by "gender" (originally a solely linguistic term) in its original meaning as in gender studies. Euphemisms for disability and handicap Connotations easily change over time. "Idiot" "imbecile" and "moron" were once neutral terms for a developmentally delayed adult with the mental age comparable to a toddler preschooler and primary school child respectively.13 As with Gresham's law negative connotations tend to crowd out neutral ones so the phrase mentally retarded was pressed into service to replace them.14 Mentally retarded too has come to be considered inappropriate by some because the word "retarded" came to be commonly used as an insult of a person thing or idea. As a result new terms like "mentally challenged" "with an intellectual disability" "learning difficulties" and "special needs" have replaced "retarded". A similar progression occurred with the following terms for persons with physical handicaps being adopted by some people: lame crippled handicapped disabled physically challenged differently abled Euphemisms can also serve to recirculate words that have passed out of use because of negative connotation. The word "lame" from above having faded from the vernacular was revitalized as a slang word generally meaning not living up to expectations or boring. The connotation of a euphemism can also be subject-specific. In the early 1960s Major League Baseball franchise owner and promoter Bill Veeck who was missing part of a leg argued against the then-favored euphemism "handicapped" saying he preferred "crippled" because it was merely descriptive and did not carry connotations of limiting one's capability the way "handicapped" (and all of its subsequent euphemisms) seemed to do (Veeck as in Wreck chapter "I'm Not Handicapped I'm Crippled"). Later comedian George Carlin gave a famous monologue of how he thought euphemisms can undermine appropriate attitudes towards serious issues such as the evolving terms describing the medical problem of the cumulative mental trauma of soldiers in high stress situations:15 shell shock (World War I) battle fatigue (World War II) operational exhaustion (Korean War) posttraumatic stress disorder (Vietnam War) He contended that as the name of the condition became more complicated and seemingly arcane sufferers of this condition have been taken less seriously as people with a serious illness and were given poorer treatment as a result. He also contended that Vietnam veterans would have received the proper care and attention they needed were the condition still called "shell shock". In the same routine he echoed Bill Veeck's opinion that "crippled" was a perfectly valid term (and noted that early English translations of the Bible seemed to have no qualms about saying that Jesus "healed the cripples"). Similarly spastic was once a neutral descriptor of a sufferer of muscular hypertonicity in British English but playground use of "spastic" (and variants such as "spaz" and "spacker") as an insult led to the term being regarded by some as offensive. While the term was developing into an insult in British English it was evolving in a radically different fashion in American English. In the U.S. "spastic" or "spaz" became a synonym for clumsiness whether physical or mental and nerdiness and is very often used in a self-deprecating manner. The difference between the British and American connotations of "spastic" was starkly shown in 2006 when golfer Tiger Woods used "spaz" to describe his putting in that year's Masters. The remark went completely unnoticed in America but caused a major uproar in the UK.16 Euphemisms for the profane Profane words and expressions in the English language are commonly taken from three areas: religion excretion and sex. While profanities themselves have been around for centuries their limited use in public and by the media has only slowly become socially acceptable and there are still many expressions which are out of place in polite conversation. One influence on the current tolerance of such language may be the frequency of its use on prime-time television. The word damn (and most other religious profanity in the English language) has long lost its shock value and as a consequence euphemisms for it (e.g. dang darn-it) have taken on a very stodgy feeling. Euphemisms for male masturbation such as "bashing the bishop""petting the penguin" "jacking off" "waxing the dolphin" "slamming the ham" or "banging one out" are used often among young people to avoid embarrassment in publiccitation needed. Excretory profanity such as piss and shit in some cases may be acceptable among informal (and usually younger)citation needed friends (while they almost are never acceptable in formal relationships or public use); euphemisms such as Number One and Number Two may be preferred for use with children. Most sexual terms and expressions even technical ones either remain unacceptable for general use or have undergone radical rehabilitation. Religious euphemisms Main article: Minced oaths Euphemisms for deities as well as for religious practices and artifacts have been recorded since the earliest writings. Protection of sacred names rituals and concepts from the uninitiated has always given rise to euphemisms whether it be for exclusion of outsiders or the retention of power among the select. Examples from the Egyptians and every other Western religion abound. Euphemisms for God and Jesus such as gosh and gee are used by Christians to avoid taking the name of God in a vain oath which would violate one of the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20) Jews consider the tetragramaton--the four-letter name of God as written in the Torah--to be of such great holiness that it was never to be pronounced as spelled except in the Temple by the High Priest on Yom Kippur the holiest day in the year. Aryeh Kaplan Meditation and Kabballa p. 134 (The pronunciation used in the Temple has been forgotten.) At all other times when praying or reading from scripture Jews say the word "Adonai" ('my Lords') in place of the letters. However outside of prayer and scriptural contexts traditional Jews will not pronounce the name "Adonai" but replace it typically with the word "HaShem" which literally means "The Name". The other name of God frequently used in the bible "Elohim" () - "Powers" - is also not pronounced as written except in formal religious use; in other contexts devout Jews typically change one of its letters to "Elokim" (). Other names of God used in Jewish speech and writing such as "HaMakom" () - "The Place"; or "HaKadosh Baruch Hu" ( ) "The Holy One Blessed is he" can be pronounced in any context. Whether they originated as euphemisms is not clear but they are used as such although they are also used in formal prayer. The respect Jews show for the name of God has created and continues to create written euphemisms in English. That is Orthodox Jews usually will not write out the word "God" but instead spell it "G-d." Recently some have begun making a similarly change to the spelling of the euphemism haShem (discussed above). It is written "haSh-m." Euphemisms for hell damnation and the devil on the other hand are often used to avoid invoking the power or drawing the attention of the adversary. The most famous in the latter category is the expression what the dickens and its variants which does not refer to the famed British writer but instead was a popular euphemism for Satan in its time. In questions "what the hell" may be replaced by "what the heck" and in directive speech "get the hell out" is sometimes replaced by "get the heck out". Excretory euphemisms While urinate and defecate are not euphemisms they are used almost exclusively in a clinical sense. The basic Anglo-Saxon words for these functions piss and shit are considered vulgarities and unacceptable in general use. The word manure referring to animal feces used as fertilizer for plants literally means "worked with the hands" (from the Latin: manus mans "hand") alluding to the mixing of manure with earth. Several zoos market the byproduct of elephants and other large herbivores as Zoo Doo or Zoopoop and there is a brand of chicken manure available in garden stores under the name Cock-a-Doodle Doo. Also a brand of sheep manure is called "Baa Baa Doo." Similarly the abbreviation BS or the word bull often replaces the word bullshit in polite society. (The term bullshit itself generally means lies or nonsense and not the literal "shit of a bull" making it a dysphemism.) What is currently known as a toilet has been known by a number of previous euphemisms "..The Honest Jakes or Privy has graduated via Offices to the final horror of Toilet..."17 There are any number of lengthier periphrases for excretion used to excuse oneself from company such as to powder one's nose to see a man about a dog (or horse) to drop the kids off at the pool or to release the chocolate hostages (these expressions could actually be regarded as dysphemisms). In the Bible to cover one's feet referred to excretion. Slang expressions which are neither particularly euphemistic nor dysphemistic such as take a leak form a separate category.citation needed In some languages various other sensitive subjects give rise to euphemisms and dysphemisms. In Spanish one such subject is class and status. The word seorito is an example although the euphemism treadmill has turned it to a disparagement at least in Mexico.citation needed Sexual euphemisms The Latin term pudendum and the Greek term (aidoion) for the genitals literally mean "shameful thing". Groin crotch and loins refer to a larger region of the body but are euphemistic when used to refer to the genitals. The word masturbate is derived from Latin the word manus meaning hand and the word sturbare meaning to defile. In pornographic stories the words rosebud and starfish are often used as euphemisms for anus generally in the context of anal sex. Sexual intercourse was once a euphemism derived from the more general term intercourse by itself which simply meant "meeting" but now is normally used as a synonym for the longer phrase thus making the town of Intercourse Pennsylvania a subject of jokes in modern usage. The "baseball metaphors for sex" are perhaps the most famous and widely-used set of polite euphemisms for sex and relationship behavior in the U.S. The metaphors encompass terms like "hitting it off" for a good start to relationship "Striking out" for being unlucky with a love interest and "running the bases" for progressing sexually in a relationship. The "bases" themselves from first to third stand for various levels of sexual activity from French kissing to "petting" itself a euphemism for manual genital stimulation all of which is short of "scoring" or "coming home" sexual intercourse. "Hitting a home run" describes sex during the first date "batting both ways" (also "switch-hitting") or "batting for the other team" describes bisexuality or homosexuality respectively and "stealing bases" refers to initiating new levels of sexual contact without invitation. Baseball-related euphemisms also abound for the "equipment"; "Bat and balls" are a common reference to the male genitalia while "glove" or "mitt" can refer to the female anatomy. There are many euphemisms for birth control devices sometimes even propagated by the manufacturers: Condoms are known as "rubbers" "sheaths" "love gloves" "diving suits" "raincoats" "Johnnies" (in Ireland and to a lesser degree Britain) etc. Euphemisms are also common in reference to sexual orientations and lifestyles. For example in the movie Closer the character played by Jude Law uses the euphemism "He valued his privacy" for being gay. Another example is being a 'lover of musical theatre'. As an aside the use of euphemisms for sexual activity has grown under the pressure of recent rulings by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding what constitutes "decent" on-air broadcast speech. The FCC included many well known euphemisms in its lists of banned terms but indicated that even new and unknown coinages might be considered indecent once it became clear what they referenced. George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say On TV" evolved into the "Incomplete List of Impolite Words" available in text and audio form and contains hundreds of euphemisms and dysphemisms to genitalia the act of having sex various forms of sex sexual orientations etc. that have all become too pejorative for polite conversation including such notables as "getting your pole varnished" and "eating the tuna taco". Euphemisms referring to profanity itself In the Spanish language the word maldicin literally meaning "a curse" or an evil spell is occasionally used as an interjection of lament or anger but not necessarily to replace any of several Spanish profanities that would otherwise be used in that same context. The same is true in Italian with the word maledizione. In Greek the word "curse" is found although from (hubris) is more commonly used and in English an exclamation that is used in a similar style is curses although it is these days less common. The stereotyped "Perils of Pauline" silent film might have the villain tying his victim to a railroad track. When the hero rescues the heroine the card might say "Curses! Foiled again!" in place of whatever cursing the character presumably uttered. The English language phrase "Pardon my French" is also sometimes used as a euphemism for profanity. On several primarily English speaking websites Cleveland is used in place of any and all swear words in order to not only confuse people but to filter the chat.citation needed In Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls swear words are replaced by the words "unprintable" and "obscenity" even though the characters are actually speaking Spanish that has been translated into English for the reader (in Spanish foul language is used freely even when its equivalent is censored in English). These replacements were not performed at the publisher's behest but instead by Hemingway's choice. In Wes Anderson's film Fantastic Mr. Fox the replacement of swear words by the word "cuss" became a humorous motif throughout the film. Euphemisms for death and murder The English language contains numerous euphemisms related to dying death burial and the people and places which deal with death. The practice of using euphemisms for death is likely to have originated with the magical belief that to speak the word "death" was to invite death; where to "draw Death's attention" is the ultimate bad fortune a common theory holds that death is a taboo subject in most English-speaking cultures for precisely this reason. It may be said that one is not dying but fading quickly because the end is near. People who have died are referred to as having passed away or passed or departed. Kick the bucket seems innocuous until one considers an explanation that has been proposed for the idiom: that a suicidal hanging victim must kick the bucket out from under his own feet during his suicide. Deceased is a euphemism for "dead" and sometimes the deceased is said to have gone to a better place but this is used primarily among the religious with a concept of Heaven. Was taken to Jesus implies salvation specifically for Christians but met his Maker may imply some judgment content implied or unknown by God. In the Bible especially in the books of Kings and Chronicles a deceased king is said to have "slept or rested with his fathers" if he received a proper burial. Some Christians often use phrases such as gone to be with the Lord or called to higher service (this latter expression being particularly prevalent in the Salvation Army) or "graduated" to express their belief that physical death is not the end but the beginning of the fuller realization of redemption. Orthodox Christians often use the euphemism fallen asleep or fallen asleep in the Lord which reflects Orthodox beliefs concerning death and resurrection. Greeks in particular are apt to refer to the deceased as "the blessed" "the forgiven" or "the absolved" ones in the belief that the dead person will be counted among the faithful at the Last Judgement. The dead body entices many euphemisms some polite and some profane as well as dysphemisms such as worm food dead meat or simply a stiff. Modern rhyming slang contains the expression brown bread. The corpse was once referred to as the shroud (or house or tenement) of clay and modern funerary workers use terms such as the loved one (title of a novel about Hollywood undertakers by Evelyn Waugh) or the dear departed. (They themselves have given up the euphemism funeral director for grief therapist and hold arrangement conferences with relatives.) Among themselves mortuary technicians often refer to the corpse as the client. A recently dead person may be referred to as "the late John Doe". The term cemetery for "graveyard" is a borrowing from Greek where it was a euphemism literally meaning 'sleeping place'. The term undertaker (for the person responsible for the preparation of a body for burial) is so well-established that some people do not recognize it as a euphemism. Modern euphemisms and dysphemisms for death tend to be quite colorful and someone who has died is said to have passed on checked out bit the big one kicked the bucket keeled over bit the dust popped their clogs pegged it carked it was snuffed out turned their toes up hopped the twig bought the farm got zapped wrote their epitaph cashed in their chips fell off their perch croaked gave up the ghost (originally a more respectful term cf. the death of Jesus as translated in the King James Version of the Bible Mark 15:37) gone south gone west gone to California shuffled off this mortal coil (from William Shakespeare's Hamlet) run down the curtain and joined the Choir Invisible or assumed room temperature (actually a dysphemism in use among mortuary technicians). When buried they may be said to be pushing up daisies sleeping the big sleep taking a dirt nap checking out the grass from underneath or six feet under. There are hundreds of such expressions in use. (Old Burma-Shave jingle: "If daisies are your favorite flower keep pushin up those miles per hour!") In Edwin Muir's 'The Horses' a euphemism is used to show the elimination of the human race 'The seven days war that put the world to sleep.' The Dead Parrot sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus contains an extensive list of euphemisms for death including many cited above referring to the deceased parrot that the character played by John Cleese had purchased. The popularity of the sketch has itself increased the popularity of some of these euphemisms indeed it has introduced another euphemism for death "pining for the fjords" (since it was a Norwegian parrot) although in the sketch that phrase was used by the shop owner to assert that the parrot was not dead but was merely quiet and contemplative. Euthanasia also attracts euphemisms. One may put one out of one's misery put one to sleep or have one put down the latter two phrases being used primarily with dogs cats and horses who are being or have been euthanized by a veterinarian. (These terms are not usually applied to humans because both medical ethics and law deprecate euthanasia.) In fact Dr. Bernard Nathanson has pointed out that the word "euthanasia" itself is a euphemism being Greek for "good death". Some euphemisms for killing are neither respectful nor playful but instead clinical and detached including terminate wet work to take care of one to do them in to off or to take them out. To cut loose or open up on someone or something means "to shoot at with every available weapon". Gangland euphemisms for murder include ventilate whack rub out cut down hit take him for a ride string him up cut down to size or "put him in cement boots" "sleep with the fishes" or "put him in a concrete overcoat" the latter three implying disposal in deep water if then alive by drowning; the arrangement for a killing may be a simple "contract" with the victim referred to as the "client" which suggests a normal transaction of business. One of the most infamous euphemisms in history was the German term Endlsung frequently translated in English as "Final Solution" as if it were the consequence of a bureaucratic decision or even an academic exercise instead of a systematic plan for genocide. Some dysphemisms especially for death are euphemisms or dysphemisms for other unpleasant events and thus are unpleasant in their literal meaning used to generalize a bad event. "Having your ass handed to you" "left for the rats" "toasted" "roasted" "burned" "pounded" "bent over the barrel" "screwed over" or other terms commonly describe death or the state of imminent death but also are common in describing defeat of any kind such as a humiliating loss in a sport or video game being unfairly treated or cast aside in business affairs being badly beaten in a fight and similar. Such an execution device as the electric chair has been known as "Old Sparky" or "Yellow Mama" and the device that delivers lethal chemicals to the condemned in a lethal injection is reduced to "the needle". To terminate with prejudice generally means to end one's employment without possibility of rehire (as opposed to lay off where the person can expect rehire if business picks up) but the related term to terminate with extreme prejudice now usually means to kill. The adjective extreme may occasionally be omitted. In a famous line from the movie Apocalypse Now Captain Willard is told to terminate Colonel Kurtz's commission "with extreme prejudice". An acronym TWEP has been coined from this phrase which can be used as a verb: "He was TWEPed/TWEPped." In a passage near the beginning of The Twelve Chairs where Bezenchuk the undertaker astonishes Vorobyaninov with his classification of people by the euphemisms used to speak of their deaths. The game Dungeon Siege contains many euphemisms for death as well. Likewise the videogame Secret of Mana uses the phrase sees the reaper to mean death. Also a scene in the film Patch Adams features Patch (Robin Williams) dressed in an angel costume reading out various synonyms and euphemisms for the phrase "to die" to a man dying of cancer. This evolves into a contest between the two men to see who can come up with more and better euphemisms ending when Patch comes up with "and if we bury you ass up we'll have a place to park my bike." Euphemisms for warfare The last time the United States Congress passed a bill with the title "Declaration of War" was in 1942 when the U.S. declared war on Romania. Since then various euphemisms have been employed: Euphemism Usage pacification While sometimes used to refer to activities designed to make life more comfortable for civilians the term can also be used imply intervention by coercive force including warfare. Examples: Pacification of Algeria Pacification of the Araucana Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland and the Pacification of Tonkin. police action In the early days of the Korean War President Harry S. Truman referred to the United States response to the North Korean invasion as a police action.18 Similarly the Vietnam War is also referred to as a "police action" or "security action". humanitarian intervention The Clinton Doctrine of military interventionism agues for involvement in warfare on humanitarian grounds. The Kosovo War is believed to be the first so-called humanitarian war.19 limited kinetic action After the 60-day War Powers Act deadline for congressional authorization to remain involved in the 2011 military intervention in Libya passed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates refused to call the operation a war; instead describing it as a limited kinetic action.20 time-limited scope-limited military action Employed by White House press secretary Jay Carney when describing the dozens of U.S. aircraft sorties and 100 cruise missiles used to enforce the no-fly/drive zone during the 2011 military intervention in Libya21 Euphemisms in job titles This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011) Euphemisms are common in job titles; some jobs have complicated titles that make them sound more impressive than the common names would imply such as CPA in place of car parking attendant. Many of these euphemisms may include words such as engineer although in fact the people who do the job are not accredited in engineering. Extreme cases such as sanitation engineer for janitor or 'transparent-wall maintenance officer' for window cleaner are cited humorously more often than they are used seriously. Less extreme cases such as custodian for janitor or administrative assistant for secretary are considered more terms of respect than euphemisms. Where the work itself is seen as distasteful a euphemism may be used for example "rodent officer" for a rat-catcher or "cemetery operative" for a gravedigger. Doublespeak Main article: Doublespeak Doublespeak often incorrectly assumed to originate from George Orwell's novel 1984 (erroneously combining Orwell's "newspeak" and "doublethink") is language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning often resulting in a communication bypass. What distinguishes doublespeak from other euphemisms is its deliberate usage. Doublespeak may be in the form of bald euphemisms such as "downsizing" or "rightsizing" for "firing of many employees"; or deliberately ambiguous phrases such as "wet work" for "assassination" and "take out" for "destroy". Common examples Other common euphemisms include: Euphemisms Meaning a love of musical theatre light in the loafers good fashion sense confirmed bachelor rides the bus male homosexuality abattoir slaughterhouse acting like rabbits making love to getting it on cheeky time doing it making the beast with two backs sleeping with having sex with adult entertainment adult material erotica pornography bathroom tissue t.p. bath tissue toilet paper (usually used by toilet paper manufacturers) big fluffy thick-boned full-figured heavy-set overweight fat chemical dependency drug addiction (though these technically describe distinct conditions) co-morbidity simultaneous existence of related mental and physical health issues (when morbidity is used as a medical term for illness) although in the regular medical use of this term it simply means the presence of one or more mental or physical diseases apart from the primary one and as such is not a euphemism.22 correctional facility prison custodian caretaker janitor (Also originally a euphemism in Latin it means doorman. In the British Secret Service it may still carry the ancient meaning. It does in the novels of John le Carr.) economically depressed neighborhood culturally-deprived environment ghetto slum enhanced interrogation "Enhanced interrogation has aways been a kind of handy euphemism" (for torture)23 fee fine gaming gambling gentlemen's club go-go bar strip club hardware key hardware token security device dongle holiday tree winter tree tree Christmas tree it's snowin' down south your slip is showing lost their lives were killed mature senior been around the block old elderly misspeak bend the truth white lie fudge colour the truth be economical with the truth dissemble lie motivation bribe or coercion peer homework help comparing answers collaborating cheating persuasion torture24 pre-owned pre-loved used or second hand goods such as automobiles products of pregnancy fetus (in the context of abortion) mentally challenged intellectually challenged stupid or subnormal intelligence restroom powder room (for women) toilet room in American English (the word toilet was itself originally a euphemism) sanitary landfill garbage dump (and a temporary garbage dump is a transfer station) also often called a Civic Amenity in the UK sanitation worker (or sarcastically sanitation officer or sanitation engineer) bin man garbage man State Electrician executioner in cases where an electric chair is used take legal action sue the big C cancer (in addition some people whisper the word when they say it in public and doctors euphemistically use technical terminology when discussing cancer in front of patients e.g. "c.a." or "neoplasia"/"neoplastic process" "carcinoma" for "tumor"); euphemisms for cancer are used even more so in the Netherlands because the Dutch word for cancer can be used as a curse word the north of Ireland Northern Ireland (seen by many Irish people as a term imposed by the British and therefore a profanity; however saying the north of Ireland may be primarily a way of identifying oneself with the Irish Nationalist cause rather than a euphemism) the Scottish Play Shakespeare's Macbeth to cut excesses (in a budget) to fire employees being paid (off) being laid off being fired from or by one's employer wellness benefits and treatments that tend to only be used in times of sickness These lists might suggest that most euphemisms are well-known expressions. Often euphemisms can be somewhat situational; what might be used as a euphemism in a conversation between two friends might make no sense to a third person. In this case the euphemism is being used as a type of innuendo. At other times the euphemism is common in some circles (such as the medical field) but not others becoming a type of jargon or in underworld situations especially argot. One such example is the line "put him in bed with the captain's daughter" from the popular sea shanty Drunken Sailor which means to give a whipping with the cat o' nine tails - euphemistically referred to by sailors as the "captain's daughter". Euphemisms can also be used by governments to rename statutes to use a less offensive expression. For example in Ontario Canada the "Disabled Person Parking Permit" was renamed to the "Accessible Parking Permit" in 2007.25 The word euphemism itself can be used as a euphemism. In the animated short It's Grinch Night (See Dr. Seuss) a child asks to go to the euphemism where euphemism is being used as a euphemism for outhouse. This euphemistic use of "euphemism" also occurred in the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf where a character requests "Martha will you show her where we keep the uh euphemism" It is analogous to the 19th-century use of unmentionables for underpants. Also lots of euphemisms are used in the improvised television show Whose Line Is It Anyway. They are used often in the game 'If You Know What I Mean' where players are given a scene and have to use as many obscure clichs and euphemisms as possible. See also For a list of words relating to euphemisms see the Euphemisms category of words in Wiktionary the free dictionary Look up euphemism in Wiktionary the free dictionary. Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopdia Britannica article Euphemism. Allusion Distancing language Code word (figure of speech) Double entendre Dysphemism Framing (social sciences) Polite fiction Political correctness Pun Sexual slang Slander and libel Spin (public relations) Thomas Bowdler Word play References Euphemism Webster's Online Dictionary. Berakhoth 58 1 Cultural Protocol Death in a community Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Dyen Isidore A. T. James & J. W. L. Cole. 1967. Language divergence and estimated word retention rate. Language 43/1: 150-171. McCool W.C. (1957-02-06). Return of Rongelapese to their Home Island Note by the Secretary. United States Atomic Energy Commission. http://worf.eh.doe.gov/ihp/chron/A43.PDF. Retrieved 2007-11-07  Snopes.com "Buy the Farm". W. V. Quine Quiddities Belknap Press 1987 pp. 5354. "The game of the name - Baltimore Sun". Articles.baltimoresun.com. 1994-04-03. Archived from the original on 1994-04-06. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-04-06/news/19940962021dutch-words-language. Retrieved 2011-01-19.  The blank slate: the modern denial ... - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2003-08-26. ISBN 9780142003343. http://books.google.com/idePNi4ZqYdVQC&pgPT309&dq%22euphemism+treadmill%22+inauthor:Pinker#vonepage&q%22euphemism%20treadmill%22%20inauthor%3APinker&ffalse. Retrieved 2011-01-19.  The stuff of thought: language as a ... - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2007-05-21. ISBN 9780143114246. http://books.google.com/idvCDX54DlYBYC&pgPT391&dq%22euphemism+treadmill%22+inauthor:Pinker#vonepage&q%22euphemism%20treadmill%22%20inauthor%3APinker&ffalse. Retrieved 2011-01-19.  "Dictionary.com Unabridged". dictionary.com: Random House Inc.. October 24 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/restroom.  "Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition". dictionary.com: HarperCollins Publishers. October 24 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/washroom.  Gould S.J. The Mismeasure of Man W.W. Norton & Co New York 1996 pp. 188-189. American Heritage Dictionary definition of "retarded" via answers.com. George Carlin They're Only Words Track 14 on Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics Atlantic/Wea audio CD 1990. Language Log A brief history of "spaz" http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/myl/languagelog/archives/003020.html 1953 "On Learning the English Tongue" Vicars Bell page 19 The President's News Conference of June 29 1950 The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/world/20071209KOSOVOFEATURE/.  Miles Donna (2011-5-16). "Gates Stresses U.S. Support Role in Libya" (html). American Forces Press Service. U.S. Department of Defense. http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspxid63964. Retrieved 2011-5-26.  Thrush Glenn; Brown Carrie (2011-3-11). "Obama avoiding major Libya address" (html). Politico. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51910.html. Retrieved 2011-5-26.  Valderas JM Starfield B Sibbald B Salisbury C Roland M (2009). "Defining comorbidity: implications for understanding health and health services.". Annals of Family Medicine 7 (4): 35763. doi:10.1370/afm.983. PMC 2713155. PMID 19597174.  NBC Anchor Brian Williams' 5/3/11 interview with CIA Director Leon Pannetta regarding waterboarding of 9/11 suspects Nordquist Richard. euphemism About.com "Getting or Replacing an Accessible Parking Permit (APP)". Mto.gov.on.ca. http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/vehicle/app.shtml. Retrieved 2011-01-19.  Further reading Allan Keith. Burridge Kate. Euphemism & Dysphemism: Language Used As Shield and Weapon Oxford University Press 1991. ISBN 0-7351-0288-0. Benveniste mile "Euphmismes anciens and modernes" in: Problmes de linguistique gnrale vol. 1 pp. 308314. originally published in: Die Sprache I (1949) pp. 116122. Keyes Ralph (2010). Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms. Little Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0316056564.  Rawson Hugh A Dictionary of Euphemism & Other Doublespeak second edition 1995. ISBN 0-517-70201-0. R.W.Holder: How Not to Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms Oxford University Press 501 pages 2003. ISBN 0-19-860762-8. Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression (ISSN US). McGlone M.S. Beck G. & Pfiester R.A. (2006). Contamination and camouflage in euphemisms. Communication Monographs 73 261-282. Smyth Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. p. 678. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.  v d ePropaganda techniques Ad hominem  Bandwagon effect  Big Lie  Blood libel  Buzzword  Card stacking  Censorship  Code word  Dog-whistle politics  Doublespeak  Euphemism  Framing  Glittering generality  Government-organized demonstration  Historical revisionism  Ideograph  Indoctrination  Lawfare  Lesser of two evils principle  Limited hangout  Loaded language  Mass games  Newspeak  Obscurantism  Plain folks  Political correctness  Public relations  Slogan  Spin  Weasel word