Euphemisms
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"I surplussed Ted. You'll need to absorb his function"
From "Dilbert" by Scott Adams
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A euphemism is a mild or roundabout word or phrase substituted for a more blunt or painful one. These include words like "heck" or "darn", as well as the numerous substitutes for death ("passed away", "departed", "kicked the bucket", etc.) and sex. Euphemisms become deceptive when:
1. There is an attempt "to obscure the meaning of what is being talked about by replacing plain English with deliberately vague jargon." (Rampton and Stauber page 292) For example, lies become "strategic misrepresentations", tax increases become "revenue enhancements" and civilian casualties become "collateral damage". "Abrupt appearance theory", "initial complexity theory" and "intelligent-design theory" are all euphemisms for creationism (Pennock page 6).
2. There is an attempt to drain the emotion from a subject. For example, some have suggested that "ethnic cleansing" is a euphemism for genocide, although "ethnic cleansing" sounds awful to me. Other examples include "reduction in force" or "downsizing" to mean layoffs.
3. There is an attempt to turn something that would normally be considered to be bad into something good. For example, layoffs now become "rightsizing", unproven or even disproven therapies become "complementary and alternative medicine" and obscene language becomes "adult language".
References
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber Trust Us, We're Experts! How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with your Future (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam 2001).
Robert T. Pennock Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism (The MIT Press 1999)
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Written by Jim Norton
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