Euphemism is the substitution of an expression that may offend or imply something unpleasant, with one that is more agreeable or inoffensive (which may be calleda euphemism).[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 considertaboo such as mental or physical disability, sexual intercourse, bodily excretions, pain, violence, illness, or death in a polite way.
Euphemism comes from theGreek wordeuphemia (εὐφημία) which refers to the use of 'words of good omen'; it is a compound ofeû (εὖ), meaning 'good, well', andphḗmē (φήμη), meaning 'prophetic speech; rumour, talk'.[2]Eupheme is a reference to the female Greek spirit of words of praise and positivity, etc. The termeuphemism itself was used as a euphemism by theancient Greeks; with the meaning "to keep a holy silence" (speaking well by not speaking at all).[3]
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, such asdeath,sex, and excretory bodily functions. They may be created for innocent, well-intentioned purposes or nefariously and cynically, intentionally to deceive, confuse, ordeny. Euphemisms that emerge as dominant social euphemisms are often created to serve progressive causes.[4][5] TheOxford University Press'sDictionary of Euphemisms identifies "late" as an occasionally ambiguous term, whose nature as a euphemism for 'dead' and an adjective meaning 'overdue' can cause confusion in listeners.[6]
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 atAuschwitz concentration camp, relative to their sheer number, is "directives for the extermination process obscured in bureaucratic euphemisms".[7] Another example of this is during the 2022Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Russian PresidentVladimir 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 linguistGhil'ad Zuckermann, Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu used the neutral Hebrew lexical itemפעימותpeimót (literally 'beatings (of the heart)'), rather thanנסיגהnesigá ('withdrawal'), to refer to the stages in the Israeli withdrawal from theWest Bank(seeWye 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
Using a euphemism can in itself be controversial, as in the following examples:
Affirmative action, meaning a preference for minorities or the historically disadvantaged, usually in employment or academic admissions. This term is sometimes said to be a euphemism forreverse discrimination, or, in the UK, positive discrimination, which suggests an intentional bias that might be legally prohibited, or otherwise unpalatable.[10]
Phonetic euphemism is used to replace profanities and blasphemies, diminishing their intensity. To alter the pronunciation or spelling of a taboo word (such asprofanity) to form a euphemism is known astaboo deformation, or aminced oath. Such modifications include:
Shortening or "clipping" the term, such asJeez ('Jesus') andwhat the— ('what the hell').
Mispronunciations, such asoh my gosh ('oh my God'),frickin ('fucking'),darn ('damn') oroh shoot ('oh shit'). This is also referred to as a minced oath.Feck is a minced oath for 'fuck', originating inHiberno-English and popularised outside of Ireland by the BritishsitcomFather Ted.
Usingacronyms as replacements, such asSOB ('son of a bitch'). Sometimes, the wordword orbomb is added after it, such asF-word ('fuck'), etc. Also, the letter can be phonetically respelled.
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, oradvertising initiatives, including:
meat packing company for 'slaughterhouse' (avoids entirely the subject of killing)
natural issue orlove child for 'bastard'
let go for 'fired/sacked'
Some examples ofCockney rhyming slang may serve the same purpose: to call a person aberk sounds less offensive than to call a person acunt, thoughberk is short forBerkeley Hunt,[19] which rhymes withcunt.[20]
Expressions or words from a foreign language may be imported for use or derived for a new word as euphemism. For example, the French wordenceinte sometimes became "encient" or used instead of the English wordpregnant;[21]abattoir into "abbatoire" forslaughterhouse, although in French the word retains its explicit violent meaning 'a place for beating down', conveniently lost on non-French speakers;entrepreneur forbusinessman, adds glamour;douche (French for 'shower') for vaginal irrigation device;bidet ('little pony') for vessel for anal washing. Although in English physical "handicaps" are often described with euphemism, in French the English wordhandicap is used as a euphemism for their problematic wordsinfirmité orinvalidité.[22]
Periphrasis, orcircumlocution, 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.
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 andlaid are euphemisms for 'sexual intercourse'.
For dysphemisms that became euphemistic, seeReappropriation.
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 ofsemantic change known aspejoration, which University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor dubbed theeuphemism cycle in 1974,[28] also frequently referred to as theeuphemism treadmill, as worded bySteven Pinker.[29] 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 euphemismhouse-of-office, which in turn replaced the even older euphemismsprivy-house andbog-house.[30] In the 20th century, where the old euphemismslavatory (a place where one washes) andtoilet (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 withbathroom (a place where one bathes),washroom (a place where one washes), orrestroom (a place where one rests) or even by the extreme formpowder room (a place where one applies facial cosmetics). The formwater closet, often shortened toW.C., is a less deflective form.[32] The wordshit appears to have originally been a euphemism for defecation in Pre-Germanic, as theProto-Indo-European root*sḱeyd-, from which it was derived, meant 'to cut off'.[33]
Another example in American English is the replacement of "colored people" with "Negro" (euphemism by foreign language), which itself came to be replaced by either "African American" or "Black".[34] Also in the United States the term "ethnic minorities" in the 2010s has been replaced by "people of color".[34]
"Venereal disease", which euphemistically associated a contagious infection withVenus, the goddess of love, lost its deflective force as the wordvenereal became more closely associated to the infection than the goddess, and was abbreviated "VD". Later this was replaced by the more clinical abbreviation "STD" (sexually transmitted disease), which has itself since been replaced by "STI" (sexually transmitted infection) in an effort to de-stigmatize testing for asymptomatic patients before they show symptoms of disease.[35]
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 the pejorative, "retard", against those with intellectual disabilities. To avoid the negative connotations of their diagnoses, students who need accommodations because of such conditions are often labeled as "special needs" instead, although the words "special" or "SPED" (short for "special education") have long been schoolyard insults.[36][better source needed] As of August 2013, theSocial Security Administration replaced the term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability".[37] Since 2012, that change in terminology has been adopted by theNational Institutes of Health and the medical industry at large.[38] There are numerousdisability-related euphemisms that have negative connotations.
"Style Guide".The Economist. 10 March 2013.Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved10 March 2013.Uglier even than human-rights abuses and more obscure even than comfort station, affirmative action is a euphemism with little to be said for it.
A Journalist's Guide to Live Direct and Unbiased News Translation. Writescope. 2010. p. 195.ISBN9780957751187.Archived from the original on 3 May 2016. Retrieved27 October 2015.In modern times, various social and political movements have introduced euphemisms, from affirmative action to political correctness to international conflicts, which are linguistically and culturally driven.
Brooks, David; Shields, Mark; Woodruff, Judy (12 December 2014)."Shields and Brooks on the CIA interrogation report, spending bill sticking point".PBS Newshour.Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved14 December 2014.[T]he report ... cuts through the ocean of euphemism, the EITs, enhanced interrogation techniques, and all that. It gets to straight language. Torture – it's obviously torture. ... the metaphor and the euphemism is designed to dull the moral sensibility.
Williams, Brian; Panetta, Leon (3 May 2011)."Transcript of interview with CIA director Panetta".NBC News.Archived from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved21 August 2011.Enhanced interrogation has always been a kind of handy euphemism (for torture)
Pickering, Thomas (16 April 2013)."America must atone for the torture it inflicted".The Washington Post.Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved22 April 2013.Let's stop resorting to euphemisms and call 'enhanced interrogation techniques' – including but not limited to waterboarding – what they actually are: torture.
^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.
^Frenchtoile, fabric, a form of curtain behind which washing, dressing and hair-dressing were performed (Larousse,Dictionnaire de la langue française, Paris: Lexis, 1979, p. 1891)
Benveniste, Émile. "Euphémismes anciens and modernes".Problèmes de linguistique générale (in French). Vol. 1. pp. 308–314. Originally published in:Die Sprache. Vol. I. 1949. pp. 116–122.
McGlone, M. S.; Beck, G.; Pfiester, R. A. (2006). "Contamination and camouflage in euphemisms".Communication Monographs.73 (3):261–282.doi:10.1080/03637750600794296.
Rawson, Hugh (1995).A Dictionary of Euphemism & Other Doublespeak (2nd ed.). Crown Publishers.ISBN0517702010.
