euphemism
- the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.
- the expression so substituted: “To pass away” is a euphemism for “to die.”
Origin of euphemism
Related Words
inoffensive, affected, delicate, figurative, indirect, metaphorical, mild, refined, vagueExamples from the Web for euphemistic
Contemporary Examples
This is comedy based on a cold humor, detached, euphemistic, devoid of any generosity.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim PresidentPierre Assouline
January 9, 2015
“ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] is just a euphemistic way of saying, ‘I have limits,’” Brown writes.
Take it from Ben Bernanke, who keeps begging Congress (in that euphemistic Fed-speak way) to do something to help the economy.
Nowhere does this report, even in the most euphemistic terms possible, discuss the rage problem.
Historical Examples
The euphemistic plural disappeared at the first syllable from Blanche.
The Thousandth WomanErnest W. Hornung
Rakshas means protector, and is, probably, an euphemistic term.
Indian Fairy TalesAnonymous
They give it euphemistic and deceitful names—auburn, bronze, Titian.
Damn!Henry Louis Mencken
We may note here the euphemistic tendency to call powerful spirits by propitiatory names.
The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream'Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
I do not think this is a euphemistic way of saying he had a good opinion of himself.
Wagner as I Knew HimFerdinand Christian Wilhelm Praeger
euphemism
- an inoffensive word or phrase substituted for one considered offensive or hurtful, esp one concerned with religion, sex, death, or excreta. Examples of euphemisms are sleep with for have sexual intercourse with; departed for dead; relieve oneself for urinate
- the use of such inoffensive words or phrases
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for euphemistic
euphemism
n.
1650s, from Greek euphemismos "use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one," from euphemizein "speak with fair words, use words of good omen," from eu- "good" (see eu-) + pheme "speaking," from phanai "speak" (see fame (n.)).
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 English, a rhetorical term at first; broader sense of "choosing a less distasteful word or phrase than the one meant" is first attested 1793. Related: Euphemistic; euphemistically.
euphemism
An agreeable word or expression substituted for one that is potentially offensive, often having to do with bodily functions, sex, or death; for example, rest room for toilet, lady of the evening for prostitute. The Nazis used euphemism in referring to their plan to murder the world's Jews (see also Jews) as “the Final Solution.”