Talk:Euphemism
Euphorbia! ħuman
16:28, 8 November 2008 (EST)
- Hey, why did you delete my, er, "version" instead of simply overwriting it? Meanie... ħuman
19:59, 8 November 2008 (EST)
Create more negativephisms!
Contents |
[edit] Err ... no ...
Excised as myth: (In fact, some Victorians were so uptight that they would dress their legged furniture -- pianos, lowboys, etc. -- with lace pant legs so that there wouldn't be even the slightest hint of impropriety in their households.)
- The piano leg story seems to have originated in Captain Frederick Marryat's 1839 book, Diary in America, as a satirical comment on American prissiness. WP 09:28, 3 July 2010 (UTC)
[edit] Pinhead
I think this should be removed. The two meanings of pinhead (a person with microcephaly, or a person who is perceived to have a small brain) are both fairly literal, neither is really a euphemism, & they're almost certainly unrelated to each other. ωεαşεζόίď
Methinks it is a Weasel 10:50, 3 July 2010 (UTC)
[edit] Cuts
A lot of the new content added by the BON has nothing or virtually nothing to do with euphemisms, so I've cut most of it. A euphemism is a word or phrase used in place of another word or phrase for reasons of tact, not a way of way of writing a story or shooting a movie so that things are implied which aren't seen on the screen. & Not the use of gender-articles in European languages . ωεαşεζόίď
Methinks it is a Weasel 11:15, 3 July 2010 (UTC)
[edit] Antonym of euphemism
Is there one - and are there any examples? 82.44.143.26 (talk) 16:41, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
Dysphemism -- a derogatory word to describe someone that one despises for political reasons. Rush Limbaugh gave us the infamous "feminazi" for "feminist". "Baby-killer" is a favorite for use against abortion providers. Pbrower2a (talk) 20:52, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
[edit] Idiot imbecile etc
This sentence: "Historically, the first three referred to people with IQ's in the range of 0-20, 20-49, 50-69 respectively" strikes me as wrong. I don't study etymology, myself, but the Wikipedia article on "idiot" claims that the word "idiot" can be traced back to Middle English. I think that, at the very least, the "historically" in this sentence is inaccurate without a more thorough examination of the word's etymology. I would change it to say, "In psychology, the first..." but, as I said, etymology is not really my thing, and I wasn't sure if there might be some kind of objection to the change.Dowdicus (talk) 14:23, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
- Ooh, upon further reading, it would seem my objection to the mischaracterization of the word's history would invalidate much of the gripe about political correctness which follows. Perhaps some intrepid anti-pc editor can find another example of the euphemism treadmill that isn't based on bad etymology? -Dowdicus (talk) 14:29, 13 December 2013 (UTC)