Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive: "Euphemisms such as 'slumber room' . . . abound in the funeral business” ( Jessica Mitford).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. 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.
- n. A word or expression thus substituted: as, to employ a euphemism.
Wiktionary
- n. The use of a word or phrase to replace another with one that is considered less offensive or less vulgar than the word or phrase it replaces.
- n. A word or phrase that is used to replace another in this way.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. 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.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh
Etymologies
- Greek euphēmismos, from euphēmizein, to use auspicious words, from euphēmiā, use of auspicious words : eu-, eu- + phēmē, speech; see bhā-2 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
““We live in interesting times” — even if the euphemism is apocryphal, its truth value is the same.”
“PC euphemism is an insult to everyone's intelligence and an assault on free speech, human dignity, and the English language.”
“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.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Vazquez: ON THE 48TH ANNUAL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
“The idea of purity tests by any euphemism is an insult to political parties.”
“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.”
“(You will excuse me if, like Humbert, I dissolve into French when euphemism is required.)”
“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.”
“The middle manager who says that “we’ll decision this” may be engaging in euphemism or attempting to appear to be a “modern” manager by being linguistically innovative, perhaps hoping to invoke ideas like “scientific management” and hence the manager’s own expertise.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » “The Modern Practice of Making Certain Nouns into Verbs”
“Barry Goldwater would be apoplectic about a) universal health care b) card check union boosterism c) politicians who support positive discrimination (or in American euphemism-speak, affirmative action) d) government fiscal stimuli of the economy e) bailout of corrupt firms (read: Detroit Three).”
“Charitable events have often been called a euphemism for social life; that notwithstanding, they have also raised an enormous amount of money for good causes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘euphemism’.
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Interpreters' Speak
team sheet, pivot language, team leader, mini-plenary, plenary week, mission order, AIC colleague, SCIC, mission, mike, adding a new lang..., language booth and 497 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
garbled, verbose, behoove, runt, douse, stipulate, condolence, incongruous, mundane, euphemism, brusque, labyrinth and 96 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
lackluster, reprimand, loathe, abhor, willful, ample, tremulous, ominous, subtle, rescind, redundant, pretentious and 96 more...
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Wordplay & Pun
wordplay, pound, conceit, clinch, joke, quibble, equivoque, double-entendre, quillet, calembour, carriwitchet, paranomasia and 89 more...
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Words I Used to Know
Words that make you go "I know that word...what the heck does it mean?!?
pulchritude, sanguine, trenchant, picaresque, gloaming, perfidious, confabulation, epiphany, importune, fulminate, efficacious, maladroit and 111 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( etymology )
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 837 more...
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Summers Vocab 1
Vocabulary for Mr. Summers.
melee, nexus, flippant, fiat, facile, euphemism, circuitous, cavalcade, perennial, surreptitious, discursive, cacophony
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Wordaliciousness
Words of a delicious nature ... for whatever reason
@, libidinous, existential, vespertine, draconian, quixotic, pragmatic, incongruous, thrisis, euphemism, eccentric, anachronism and 12 more...
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Beautiful words
Self-explanatory.
plural, melancholy, mother, euphemism, plea, violin, chaos, chasm, soliloquy, air, listen, liopleurodon and 23 more...
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eu-
good; well; easily
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Vocab #12
Mrs. Wilson's Class 2012
euphemism, mundane, incongruous, condolence, stipulate, douse, runt, behoove, verbose, garbled

stephanieconn 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
Jun 8, 2009
oroboros Circumlocution of sorts. Apr 13, 2007