Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A mild, indirect, or vague term for one that is considered harsh, blunt, or offensive.
- noun The use of such terms.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In rhetoric, the use of a mild, delicate, or indirect word or expression in place of a plainer and more accurate one, which by reason of its meaning or its associations or suggestions might be offensive, unpleasant, or embarrassing.
- noun A word or expression thus substituted: as, to employ a euphemism.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Rhet.) A figure in which a harsh or indelicate word or expression is softened; a way of describing an offensive thing by an inoffensive expression; a mild name for something disagreeable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable The use of a word or phrase to replace another with one that is considered less
offensive ,blunt orvulgar than the word or phrase it replaces. - noun countable A word or phrase that is used to replace another in this way.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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“We live in interesting times” — even if the euphemism is apocryphal, its truth value is the same.
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PC euphemism is an insult to everyone's intelligence and an assault on free speech, human dignity, and the English language.
Keeping the Riff-Raff Out of Heaven nissa_amas_katoj 2009
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Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.
Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010
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Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.
Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010
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The idea of purity tests by any euphemism is an insult to political parties.
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Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.
Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010
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Populated by a subculture comprised of wizened mechanics, poignant, heroic street urchins, crack-addicted car dwellers, Foreign Parts is a documentary about the fading Steinbeckian (to deal in euphemism) marketplace that is the Willets Point car repair strip in Queens, NY, where a cluster of garages with deep inventories of all manner of car parts from all manner of vehicle, furnish countless savvy, budget-conscious New Yorkers with daily miracles plucked from endless shelves and heaps.
Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Michael Vazquez 2010
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The idea of purity tests by any euphemism is an insult to political parties.
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The concern, stripped of euphemism, is that the evidentiary basis for many trials of Guantanamo detainees — including, in many cases, torture — would never be admissible in any court worthy of the name.
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(You will excuse me if, like Humbert, I dissolve into French when euphemism is required.)
Hurricane Lolita 2005
oroboros commented on the word euphemism
Circumlocution of sorts.
April 13, 2007
stephanieconn commented on the word euphemism
1656, from Gk. euphemismos "use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one," from euphemizein "speak with fair words," from eu- "good" + pheme "speaking," from phanai "speak" (see fame). In ancient Greece, the superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies, or substitutions such as Eumenides "the Gracious Ones" for the Furies (see also Euxine). In Eng., a rhetorical term at first; broader sense of "choosing a less distasteful word or phrase than the one meant" is first attested 1793.
refernce to the martyr, Euphemia
June 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word euphemism
J.C.Duffy's take.
August 14, 2014
munindaralw commented on the word euphemism
‘Digital India’ cannot become a euphemism for an Internet controlled by large corporations: Rahul Gandhi
March 1, 2016
munindaralw commented on the word euphemism
best example:
A bunch of blog-spammers and google-spoofers (the euphemism is "Search Engine Optimization" -- no doubt you've received spam offering you this "service") set up a competition to see who could become the number one Google result for the previously unused phrase "nigritude ultramarine."
March 1, 2016
mark22 commented on the word euphemism
Hi folks! Looking for the term that describes using a spoonerism euphemism to avoid saying a profane or sacred phrase. I suspect there is a term for this, other than the awkward but accurate spoonerism euphemism. Does anybody out there know this term?
February 23, 2018
qms commented on the word euphemism
Is not the spoonerism itself the euphemism? As in ,
Q: How is the Swiss navy like a baby?
A: Always sucking and never fails.
I do not know that this genre has a name.
See also spoonerism.
February 23, 2018
alexz commented on the word euphemism
alternaswears alterna-swears , bowdlerism ... I have a ████ list...
February 24, 2018