• euphemism •
Pronunciation: yu-fê-mi-zêm • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: An inoffensive word or phrase that substitutes for an offensive or taboo word.
Notes: A euphemism replaces a word that refers to something that we don't like to mention aloud. There are many for die: pass away, depart, expire, kick the bucket. Lord, Creator, Almighty are euphemisms for God, a name many consider too holy to utter. Euphemisms help us avoid taking the Lord's name in vain, prohibited by the Ten Commandments. God as an expletive has been replaced by golly and gosh, while Jesus has become just gee whiz, later reduced to just gee. Darn and heck are polite surrogates for similar expletives.
In Play: Political correctness all too frequently takes refuge in euphemisms: postal carrier for postman, sanitation engineer for garbage collector. The airlines now use the euphemism water landings in preference to "crashing into the sea". We have invented many euphemistic terms for taboo terms referring to sex and lower bodily functions, which we need not parade before a readership as imaginative as ours. On a side note, the surname of the next (third) president of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, is based on medved "a bear". Medved was originally a euphemism meaning "honey eater", used at a time when Russian bear hunters considered the name of their target a taboo word that would jinx the hunt.
Word History: Today's Good Word is a thinly disguised copy of Greek euphemismos. The Greek noun comes from the verb euphemizein "to use auspicious (lucky) words". Euphemismos was compounded from eu-s "good" + pheme "speech, saying" + the noun suffix -ism-os (the origin of the English suffix -ism). The word for "speech" in Greek shares its source with Latin fari "to speak". The present participle of fari is fan(t)s "speaking", the negative of which is infan(t)s "not speaking". Guess which English word came from this Latin term. ("Thank you" is no euphemism when we offer it to Ralph Mowrey for suggesting today's Good Word.)
EUPHEMISM
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EUPHEMISM
• The Good Dr. Goodword
'Good word' indeed. I love Albee's line, "Martha, will you show her where we keep the, uh, euphemism?" ... but I wonder if most euphemisms in use now are intentional or just words that stuck after their intention was forgotten. Press secretaries are definitely full of it, as are ad men (redundancy check) but I can't think of many current expressions that aren't just evading filters or used in humor. Modern euphemisms, anyone?
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Euphemisms for "fired"
How many of these can you think of: laid off, let go, released, . . . I have a list somewhere but can't find it now. Some are downright silly.
• The Good Dr. Goodword
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Re: Euphemisms for "fired"
Not as many as for dying, butHow many of these can you think of: laid off, let go, released, . . . I have a list somewhere but can't find it now. Some are downright silly.
Sacked
given walking papers/pink slip/the Boot
terminated (!)
more to follow...
Must draw a distinction for laid off though- every time I've heard it, it means a separation, often finite, that happened through no fault of the layoffee.
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
Downsized
Outplaced
Fired
Canned
Phased out
Axed
Also, in modern Hebrew, there is a single word for "asked to resign" התפוטר (heet poo tar). The word is formed by combining the past tense reflexive prefix with the verb "fired".
Outplaced
Fired
Canned
Phased out
Axed
Also, in modern Hebrew, there is a single word for "asked to resign" התפוטר (heet poo tar). The word is formed by combining the past tense reflexive prefix with the verb "fired".
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
Anonymous
If someone said that to me I'd not only resign, I'd run!in modern Hebrew, there is a single word for "asked to resign" התפוטר (heet poo tar). The word is formed by combining the past tense reflexive prefix with the verb "fired".
mb
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kb
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Yeah, I wouldn't want to heat any tarry-looking pooh either! Not even with full headgear and breathing apparatus!
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
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"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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