Euphemism
A euphemism is a word or phrase used in place of a term that originally could not be spoken aloud (see taboo) or, by extension, terms which they consider to be disagreeable or offensive. "Euphemism" derives from Greek words eu ευ "well" + pheme φήμη "speaking," words that in an ancient Greek context enjoined the "right silence" that suited some religious topics. Examples of the original religious taboo embodied in a eupheme are unspeakable names for a deity, such as Persephone, Hecate, Nemesis or Yahweh. Rumpole of the Bailey speaks of his wife only as "She Who Must Be Obeyed".
When a phrase is used as a euphemism, it becomes a metaphor whose literal meaning is often dropped. Euphemisms are also used to hide unpleasant 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 known as doublespeak.
The converse of a euphemism is a dyslogism, literally a "bad-wording".
Euphemism and historical linguistics
Historical linguistics has revealed traces of taboo deformations in many languages. Several are known to have occurred in Indo-European, including the original Indo-European words for bear (*rktos), wolf (*wlkwos), and deer (originally, 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".
In some languages of the Pacific, using the name of a deceased chief is taboo. Since people are often named after everyday things, this leads to the swift development of euphemisms. These languages have a very high rate of vocabulary change.
The "euphemism treadmill"
Euphemisms can eventually become taboo words themselves through a process the linguist Steven Pinker has called the euphemism treadmill (cf. Gresham's Law in economics).
Words originally intended as euphemisms, or "politically correct" phrases, may lose their euphemistic value, acquiring the negative connotations of their referents. In some cases, they may be used mockingly and become dysphemistic.
For example, toilet room, itself a euphemism, was replaced with bathroom and water closet, which were replaced (respectively) with rest room and W.C.. Funeral director replaced mortician, which replaced undertaker.
Connotations easily change over time. Idiot was once a neutral term, and moron a similar one. Negative senses of a word tend to crowd out neutral ones, so the word retarded was pressed into service to replace them. Now that too is considered rude, and a result, new terms like mentally challenged or special are starting to replace retarded. In a few decades, calling someone special may well be a grave insult. A similar progression occurred with
crippled → handicapped → disabled → differently-abled
The euphemism treadmill also occurs with notions of profanity and obscenity. Words once called "offensive" were later described as "objectionable", and later "questionable". However, "questionable" was judged by some to itself contain a value judgment — it was replaced with "possibly questionable", though the word "possible" is technically a redundancy.
A complementary dysphemism treadmill exists, but is more rarely observed. One modern example is the word "sucks". "That sucks" began as American slang for "that is very unpleasant", and is shorthand for "that sucks dick". It developed over the late-20th century from being an extremely vulgar phrase to near-acceptability. A child would rarely be disciplined for using the phrase "that sucks", which has been divorced from its original meaning.
Classification of euphemisms
Many euphemisms fall into one or more of these categories:
- Foreign terms (derriere, copulation)
- Abbreviations (SOB for "son of a bitch")
- Abstractions (it, the situation, go)
- Indirections (behind, unmentionables)
- Longer (usually Latinate) words (perspire, urinate)
- Mispronunciation (goldarnit, freakin)
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, 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 one's point seem more correct than opponent's.
The 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 are 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 Cockney 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 Berkshire Hunt which rhymes with cunt.
Bureaucracies such as the military and large corporations frequently spawn euphemisms of a more deliberate (and to some, more sinister) nature. Organizations coin doublespeak expressions to describe objectionable actions in terms that seem neutral or inoffensive. Militaries at war frequently do kill people, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by mistake; in doublespeak, the first may be called neutralizing the target and the second collateral damage. Likewise, 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, while the disadvantage being the lack of real life context.
Euphemisms for the profane
Profane words and expressions are generally taken from three areas: religion, excretion, and sex. While profanities themselves have been around for some time, their limited use in public and by the media has only in the past decade become socially acceptable, and there are still many expressions which cannot be used in polite conversation. The common marker of acceptability would appear to be use on prime-time television or in the presence of children. Thus, damn (and most other religious profanity) is acceptable, and as a consequence, euphemisms for religious profanity have taken on a very stodgy feeling. Excretory profanity such as piss and shit may be acceptable in adult conversation, while euphemisms like Number One and Number Two are preferred for use with children. Most sexual terms and expressions either remain unacceptable for general use or have undergone radical rehabilitation (penis and vagina, for instance).
Religious euphemisms
- God/God damn:
- goldarn
- golly
- gosh
- gadzooks, supposedly God's hooks, the nails by which Jesus hung on the cross
- gawd
- goldang
- Godfrey Daniel, used by W.C. Fields
- doggone
- gosh darn
- gad
- dog, an anagram for God used mostly in the phrase Oh my dog! or Oh My Feicking Dog. Also known in the internet world as OMD or OMFD.
- (See also tetragrammaton for the taboo of the Hebrew name of God.)
- Damn/Damnation:
- darn
- drat
- durn
- dang
- Hell:
- Jesus/Jesus Christ:
- gee
- jeepers or jeepers creepers for Jesus Christ
- jeez
- gee whiz
- golly gee
- The Devil:
- the dark one
- the deuce (The deuce you say!—archaic)
- the dickens, in use before the era of Charles Dickens
- Old Nick
- Old Scratch
Excretory euphemisms
- urine/urinate:
- gypsies kiss
- number one
- pee
- piddle
- tinkle
- wee-wee
- whiz
- take a leak
- relieve oneself
- feces/defecation:
- number two
- bowel movement or bm
- droppings
- dung
- poo (and variations such as poop and poopie)
- doo (typically in dog doo, but see below)
- night soil archaic, but composted human feces are still so called
- stool
- toilets / bathrooms
- men's room / women's room
- the little boy's room / the little girl's room
- restroom
- the porcelain god, often in connection with vomiting
- the throne
- the crapper
- the head, sailor's terminology. The facility was placed on the bow or head of the ship in case of falls while at sea
- the john
- the potty
- outhouse
- backhouse
- donnicker
- the big white telephone or the white courtesy phone, "talking to John on..."
- W.C., short for Water Closet
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, despite the use of piss in the King James Bible.
The word manure, referring to animal feces used as fertilizer for plants, literally means "worked with the hands", alluding to the mixing of manure with earth. Several zoos market the byproduct of elephants and other large herbivores as Zoo Doo, and there is a brand of chicken manure available in garden stores under the name Cock-a-Doodle Doo.
There are any number of lengthier periphrases for excretion used to excuse oneself from company, such as to powder one's nose or to see a man about a horse (or dog). Slang expressions which are neither particularly euphemistic nor dysphemistic, such as take a leak, form a separate category.
Sexual euphemisms
- The term adult for sexually oriented for pornographic. For example:
- adult film for pornographic movie
- adult actress or adult actor for porn star
- adult film industry for pornography industry
- adult bookstore for pornography store
- erotic dancer or exotic dancer for stripper
- sex worker for porn star, stripper, or prostitute
- The term eve teasing is used for sexual harassment in Indian English
- genitalia:
- crotch
- gonads (can also refer to the proto-genitalia of an unborn fetus)
- nads
- groin
- private parts/privates
- intimate parts
- fanny (for vagina, in British English only; means buttocks in American English. See: American and British English differences)
- vagina (an early euphemism from Latin in place of the English cunt)
- buttocks:
- bum
- fanny (A.E. only; means vagina in B.E. See: American and British English differences)
- tush or tushy
- bottom
- posterior
- rump
- Having sex:
- feick
- fuck (archaic, now a dysphemism)
- mac
- fornication
- fudge
- lay with or lie with. For example, Harry lay with Sally
- know. Biblical Adam knew Eve; generally phrased know him/her... in the Biblical sense
- sleep with
- hook-up
- horizontal folk dancing
- carnal knowledge
- make the beast with two backs (Shakespeare)
- Put it up your rectum:
- up yours (a shortening of "(stick it) up your (ass)")
- stick it where the sun don't shine
- Suck my sexual organ (see oral sex):
- blow me
- eat me
- bite me (this phrase has a very aggressive connotation, suggesting that the person offering to accede to the request would be putting himself/herself at risk)
The term pudendum for the genitals literally means "shameful thing". Groin and crotch refer to a larger region of the body, but are euphemistic when used to refer to the genitals.
Virtually all other sexual terms are still considered profane and unacceptable for use even in a euphemistic sense.
Euphemisms for death
The English language contains numerous euphemisms related to dying, death, burial, and the people and places which deal with death.
Most commonly, one is not dying, rather, fading quickly because the end is near. Death is referred to as having passed away or departed. Deceased is a euphemism for 'dead'. 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.
There are many euphemisms for the dead body, some polite and some profane, as well as dysphemisms such as worm food, or dead meat. 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 dearly 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.
Contemporary euphemisms for death tend to be quite colorful, and someone who has died is said to have passed away, passed on, bit the big one, bought the farm, croaked, given up the ghost, kicked the bucket, gone south, tits up, shuffled off this mortal coil (from Hamlet), or assumed room temperature. When buried, they may be said to be pushing up daisies, sleeping with the fishes or taking a dirt nap. There are hundreds of such expressions in use.
Euthanasia also attracts euphemisms. One may put him out of his misery, or put him to sleep, the latter phrase being used primarily with non-human animals.
There are a few euphemisms for killing which are neither respectful nor playful, but rather clinical and detached. Some examples of this type are terminate, wet work, to take care of one or to take them for a ride, to do them in, to off or waste someone. To cut loose (from U.S. Sgt. Massey's account of activities during the occupation of Iraq of the early 21st century) or open up on someone, means 'to shoot at with every weapon available'.
The 'Parrot Sketch' from Monty Python's Flying Circus contains an extensive list of euphemisms for death, referring to the deceased parrot that the character played by John Cleese purchases.
Doublespeak
What distinguishes doublespeak from other euphemisms is its deliberate usage by governmental, military, or corporate institutions. Examples of doublespeak include:
- collateral damage for unintentional killing or damage
- servicing a target for "killing"
- casualty for "death or injury"
- rightsizing, a euphemism for downsizing, a euphemism for layoffs, itself a euphemism for mass firing of employees. The Dilbert series satirizes this in one strip in which an employee is unable to figure out he has been laid off
- also made redundant, services are no longer required, et cetera, for firing in general
- spontaneous energetic disassembly for "explosion" (reportedly used by a director of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant)
- protective custody for "imprisonment without due process of law"
- the Nazi term Endlösung ("final solution") as a description for the Holocaust
- comfort women as a term for prostitute which was then changed to refer specifically to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II
- post-traumatic stress disorder, a euphemism for operational exhaustion, euphemism for battle fatigue, a euphemism for shell shock. Used as an example of dehumanization of language (particularly by the American comedian George Carlin). The terms were used in the Vietnam War, Korean War, World War II and World War I respectively. Note, however, that Post-traumatic stress disorder has occurred outside wars, e.g. among rape victims
- ethnic cleansing for genocide
- intervention for invasion
- executive action for assassination
- computer-implemented invention for computer program or programming method in the context of patents, because software patents are a controversial topic
- detainee for foreign prisoners held indefinitely by the US military without formal charge, judicial review, or recognition of Geneva Convention protection.
Other examples
Other common euphemisms include:
- restroom for toilet room (the word toilet was itself originally a euphemism). This is an Americanism.
- making love to, playing with or sleeping with for having sexual intercourse with
- motion discomfort bag and air-sickness bag for vomit bag
- sanitary landfill for garbage dump
- the big C for cancer (in addition, some people whisper the word when they say it in public, and doctors have euphemisms to use in front of patients)
- bathroom tissue or bath tissue for toilet paper (Usually used by toilet paper manufacturers)
- custodian for janitor (also originally a euphemism -- in Latin, it means doorman.)
- sanitation worker for "garbage man"
- mixologist for bartender
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. As an example, in the series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the Banks family discusses Hilary's new boyfriend, who happens to be white, using tall as a euphemism for white. Will, who apparently doesn't catch on, remarks that he is the only one who seems to notice the new boyfriend is white.
The inflation of occupational titles is similar to the euphemism treadmill. For instance, the engineering professions have traditionally resisted the tendency by other technical trades to appropriate the prestige of the title engineer. Most people calling themselves software engineers or network engineers are not, in fact, accredited in engineering. Extreme cases, such as sanitation engineer for janitor are cited humorously more often than they are used seriously.
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.
See also
References
- Rawson, Hugh, A Dictionary of Euphemism & Other Doublespeak, second edition, 1995. ISBN 0517702010
- R.W.Holder: How Not to Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms, Oxford University Press, 501 pages, 2003. ISBN 0198607628