Difference between revisions of "Euphemism"

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There are also many euphemisms that are meant to de-sex other parts of the anatomy -- and, by extension, things that a reminiscent of those other parts of the anatomy.<ref>[[George Carlin]] performed at least one routine about these euphemisms.</ref>  Many of these euphemisms were products of the Victorian Era.  For instance, a leg of poultry became a "drumstick", thighs became "dark meat", and breasts became "white meat".  A person's arms and legs became "limbs".<ref>This euphemism, virtually forgotten today, was referenced in the 1935 film ''Mississippi''.  W.C. Fields played a late 19<sup>th</sup> century riverboat captain who, while talking to a woman, said "legs".  He quickly realized what he had said, tipped his cap and said, "Pardon me, madam.  'Limbs.'"</ref>   
 
There are also many euphemisms that are meant to de-sex other parts of the anatomy -- and, by extension, things that a reminiscent of those other parts of the anatomy.<ref>[[George Carlin]] performed at least one routine about these euphemisms.</ref>  Many of these euphemisms were products of the Victorian Era.  For instance, a leg of poultry became a "drumstick", thighs became "dark meat", and breasts became "white meat".  A person's arms and legs became "limbs".<ref>This euphemism, virtually forgotten today, was referenced in the 1935 film ''Mississippi''.  W.C. Fields played a late 19<sup>th</sup> century riverboat captain who, while talking to a woman, said "legs".  He quickly realized what he had said, tipped his cap and said, "Pardon me, madam.  'Limbs.'"</ref>   
 
===Gender===
 
 
The use of the word ''[[gender]]'' for ''sex'' is another euphemism that grew out of the Victorian Era.  Today, "gender" often refers to [[feminist]] and [[LGBT]] issues.  But, in the strictest sense, gender originally refered to the cases of foreign language nouns, pronouns and articles.  For example, in French the article ''the'' is masculine (''le'') or feminine (''la'').  In German, ''the'' is masculine (''der''), feminine (''die'') or neuter (''das''). 
 
 
The gender cases of foreign words have little to do with sexuality, sexual imagery or actual sex.  For example, ''la baguette'' -- perhaps the most famous type of French bread loaf -- has a feminine case even though it has a phallic shape.  Conversely, the French bread known as ''le pain de campagne'' has a masculine case but is shaped like a pregnant belly.  In German, singular nouns have specific genders: all dogs are masculine (''der Hund''); all cats are feminine (''die Katze''); and all pre-pubescent girls are neuter (''das Mädchen''), while all boys (''der Junge'') and men (''der Mann'') are masculine.  But all German plurals are feminine -- ''die Hunde, die Katzen, die Mädchen, die Jungen, die Männer.''
 
 
==Movie and broadcasting euphemisms==
 
 
Among the 20<sup>th</sup> century's leading sources of euphemisms were the various movie and broadcasting [[censorship]] groups around the world.  These censors forced writers and directors to adopt euphemisms when writing about certain day-to-day occurrences like sex, pregnancy, etc. 
 
 
The so-called Hays Code, which Hollywood movie studios operated under from the 1920s through the 1950s, didn't just inspire screenwriters to create euphemistic dialog.  The Hays Code also forced writers to create euphemistic actions that implied what was happening without actually showing or telling what was happening.
 
 
Consider the following sequence from the 1950 film ''Sunset Blvd.'':
 
<blockquote>
 
Silent film star Norma Desmond slits her wrists after screenwriter Joe Gillis, who lives over her garage, threatens to leave.  Later that evening -- a dark and stormy night -- he returns and finds out about the suicide attempt.  He goes to see her in her bedroom.  After a few moments, Norma hooks her arm around the back of his neck and draws his lips towards hers.  The screen fades out.  The next scene takes place on a sunny day a few weeks later.  Norma is wearing a bikini and lounging by the pool, which had earlier been drained but is now clean and full of water.  Up to this point, Norma had acted as if she was permanently clenched.  Now she is quite relaxed.  Joe still lives there, but from this point on we see no evidence that he is still living over the garage.  Also, he now owns an expensive vicuna coat that Norma had earlier tried to buy for him but he refused.</blockquote>
 
 
All of these are Hays Code euphemisms that add up to one thing:  (a) Norma and Joe had sex that night, and (b) Norma and Joe had lots of sex after that night.
 
 
==="Her ass"===
 
 
Another form of euphemism is the mispronunciation -- especially in the United States -- of the word "harass".  The correct pronunciation of this word is ''huh-RASS''.  But many people pronounced it ''HAIR-us'' because, to them, the correct pronunciation sounds like "her ass".  When radio became popular in the 1920s, listeners complained whenever they heard the "her ass" pronunciation.  In response, radio stations and networks required that the word be pronounced ''HAIR-us''.
 
 
==="Expecting"===
 
 
When Lucille Ball became pregnant during the run of ''I Love Lucy'', the executives at CBS nearly shit themselves worrying about how her pregnancy would impact what was then the nation's top-rated show.  Some wanted to shoot just head-and-shoulder shots of her.  Others worried that they would have to cancel the show.  Finally, after consulting several priest, pastors and rabbis, the network decided to write the pregnancy angle into the show.  However, Lucy Ricardo was never pregnant.  Instead, they decided that she was "expecting".
 
 
This was actually quite a bit of progress for Hollywood.  In the 1939 movie ''Stagecoach'', passenger Lucy Mallory was also ''expecting''.  But you couldn't tell this because actress Louise Platt was most definitely ''not expecting'' at the time.  The only references to her ''expecting'' -- or, in this case, to ''a woman in her condition'' -- occur early in the movie when the proper women of the town dote over her as she tries to board the stagecoach.  If you don't catch those references, you'll probably yell WTF!?<ref>An [[internet]] euphemism.</ref> when she delivers her baby halfway through the movie.
 
  
 
==Euphemisms and spin==
 
==Euphemisms and spin==

Revision as of 11:09, 3 July 2010

A euphemism is a word or phrase used as a way of saying something without actually saying it directly. Some euphemisms are metaphors, while others are only substituting one word for another. Although euphemisms are common in many languages, they are especially frequent in English.

Euphemisms may be used to avoid offence, to put a certain 'spin' on a situation, or to avoid referring directly to something which is considered taboo, such as sex, death or bodily functions. Sometimes they are used to conceal the true meaning of a conversation when discussing something in public. This explains the origin of many of the slang words for illegal drugs.

Euphemisms: sex and anatomy

There are probably more sexual and anatomical euphemisms than any other kind. Some of them, such as "making love" are used to refer to sexual subjects politely and without causing offense. Others are cruder and exist largely for amusement, such as "spanking the monkey" and many, many other euphemisms for masturbation.

There are also many euphemisms that are meant to de-sex other parts of the anatomy -- and, by extension, things that a reminiscent of those other parts of the anatomy.[1] Many of these euphemisms were products of the Victorian Era. For instance, a leg of poultry became a "drumstick", thighs became "dark meat", and breasts became "white meat". A person's arms and legs became "limbs".[2]

Euphemisms and spin

Euphemisms are used extensively in politics, media and public relations, often to whitewash or downplay negative subjects. An example is using words like "casualties" or "fatalities" to refer to deaths in a war or disaster. These words arguably dehumanise the subject of death to some extent, and are often used in the context of reducing people's lives to a statistic. Military jargon has developed many such phrases, such as "collateral damage" to refer to unintended civilian deaths in a conflict. An early example of this is the phrase "concentration camp", which was coined by the British in circa 1900, since it was thought to be more neutral-sounding than "prison camp", although it later assumed the same negative connotations after its use in World War II and after.

Euphemisms and political correctness

Many politically correct terms are euphemisms, created to avoid offence by being indirect about a sensitive issue, such as a person's race or disabilities, or to replace a more offensive phrase. This is the focus of many of the critics of political correctness, who claim that it is disingenuous and intended only to cloud language with pointless subtleties. In most cases, however, the new terms are coined because previous words or phrases have become unacceptable, via the process known as the "euphemism treadmill"

Euphemism treadmill

It quickly becomes apparent what a euphemism means and why it is being used. Hence it rapidly takes on all the connotations of the original word or phrase it was used to replace. Consequently new euphemisms are created as a substitute, and they in turn take on the original connotations and are gradually replaced with newer euphemisms. This phenomenon is known as the "euphemism treadmill".

Examples of the euphemism treadmill include the many words used to describe people with mental disabilities; "idiot", "imbecile", "moron" and "cretin". Historically, these referred to people with IQ's in the range of 0-20, 20-49, 50-69 respectively,[3] while "cretin" was a medical term referring to stunted physical and/or mental growth caused by either a deficiency of thyroid hormones or a prolonged deficiency of iodine.[4]

These terms were all used historically for people with various kinds of mental impairment. Eventually, they became used more widely as general pejoratives - hence they were replaced in a medical context during the twentieth century with phrases such as "mentally retarded" and "spastic". Again, these came to be used out of context as offensive insults, to the point where they were considered decidedly politically incorrect, and were replaced by newer phrases such as "mentally challenged" and "special needs", some of which have also come to be used offensively. Meanwhile, the original terms such as "idiot" and "moron" have entirely lost their clinical connotations, and are used freely to describe people whose behaviour or opinions we find to be "stupid" without actually implying that they are disabled.

"Pinhead" is another once-popular term[5] that has experienced a resurgence thanks to Fox News personalities Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.[6] The term "pinhead" originally referred to a person with microcephaly, a birth defect that causes the circumference of a person's head to be at least two standard deviations smaller than average for a person of the same sex and age. Most people with microcephaly have shorter life spans and diminished mental abilities.[7]

See also

Footnotes

  1. George Carlin performed at least one routine about these euphemisms.
  2. This euphemism, virtually forgotten today, was referenced in the 1935 film Mississippi. W.C. Fields played a late 19th century riverboat captain who, while talking to a woman, said "legs". He quickly realized what he had said, tipped his cap and said, "Pardon me, madam. 'Limbs.'"
  3. IQ Comparison Site - Basics. Also note that the progression of idiot/imbecile/moron is alphabetical.
  4. See the Wikipedia article on Cretinism.
  5. Gabba Gabba Hey.
  6. "Pinhead" seems to be O'Reilly's favorite epithet for people who hold opinions that oppose his own. He even sells "Don't Be A Pinhead" T-shirts and "No Pinheads" welcome mats on his website.
  7. See the Wikipedia article on Microcephaly.