What you want to say is that

the boy is very 'fat'

Or the man is very 'poor'

Or even the lady is very 'old'

 But.....
Society tells us it is not politically correct to
state an obvious fact about somebody

How do you feel about that?

So what can we do?

We can use...
Euphemisms
 Where does the word
'euphemism' come from?
 euphemize [1855-60; Gk euphēmízein to
use words of good omen]
 eu- a combining form meaning “good,”
“well,” occurring originally in loanwords from
Greek
 euphemism: made up of three bound
morphemes:, all Greek in origin:
eu (good) + phem(voice) +ism (act/result)
 Where does the word 'euphemism'
come from? (cont.)
Examples:
 eulogy: a statement of praise, esp. a set oration in
honor of a deceased person; -high praise
 eulogize v
 euphony: agreeableness of sound; pleasing effect to
the ear, esp. a pleasant sounding or harmonious
combination or succession of words
 euphonic adj.

eugenic: having good inherited characteristics.

eupeptic: good digestion
 Formation of euphemisms

 borrowing words from other languages----terms

that are less freighted with negative associations,
e.g., halitosis (bad breath)< Latin halitus for breath
 widening----When a specific term becomes too
painful or vivid, we move up in the ladder of
abstraction. e.g., growth (cancer), foundation
(girdle), solid human waste (feces)
 semantic shift----the substitution of the whole, or a
similar generality, for the specific part we do not
choose to discuss. e.g., rear end (bottom)
 Formation of euphemisms
 metaphorical transfer----the comparison of things of
one order to things of another. e.g. blossom (pimple)
 phonetic distortion----When we encounter words that
we dare not speak their names, we abbreviate,
apocopate (shorten or omit the last syllable), initial,
convert, backform and reduplicate them. e.g.
 Abbreviation: ladies < ladies’ room
 Apocopation: vamp < vampire (a seductive woman)
 Initialing: JC < Jesus Christ
 Backforming: burgle (rob) < burglar
 Reduplication: pee-pee < piss
 Phonetic distortion: cripes < Christ, Gad < God
 Formation of euphemisms
 Examples of euphemism
1.rubbish man sanitation engineer
2. old people senior citizen
3. pregnant in the family way
4. die pass away
5. the dead the deceased /the late
6. gravedigger undertaker / mortician
7. lunatic asylums mental institutions
 Do you know the meaning of the
following?
(Some you have already seen)
• senior citizen
• law-enforcement officer
• undertaker
• collateral damage
• pro-choice
• white meat
• adult video
• economical with the truth
• tired and emotional
• person with a visual
impairment
• substance abuser
• downsizing
• Where can I wash my
hands?
 Answers
• adult movie - pornographic movie

• • economical with the truth - someone

senior citizen - old person
who is economical with the truth
• law-enforcement officer - policeman is a liar
• undertaker - a person or firm • tired and emotional - drunk
whose job it is to dispose of the • person with a visual impairment - a
blind person.
bodies of people who have died
• substance abuser - a drug addict
• collateral damage - this is the term • downsizing- reducing the size and
given to the civilians killed in wages bill of a company by
bombing attacks on a city. sacking employees
• Where can I wash my hands? -
• pro-choice - describes person who Where is the toilet?
is a supporter of a woman's right
to have an abortion
• white meat - the meat that comes
from the breast of a chicken
 Language points
 auspicious: (fairly formal) favorable or glorified, raising
the status of the person referred to, e.g. It was an
auspicious start to their election campaign.
 exalted: uplifting
 down-to-earth: factual, telling what something actually is
 partial: showing special favor to one side, person, etc.,
esp. in an unfair way; biased
partiality: bias
e.g. Show no partiality in your decisions.
be partial to: like very much, e.g,
I’m very partial to sweet foods.
 detestable: hateful
 Language points
 operation: (singular) used as part of a code name for
military campaigns
 expunge: (formal) remove completely, e.g. from a piece
of writing or from your memory, because it causes
problems or bad feelings
e.g. He had tried to expunge memories of the failure.
…his battle to expunge the clause from the contact
 imagery: the mental pictures that are created in your
mind by poetic language; used also of the words which
create these pictures.
e.g. He argued that Shakespeare’s plays were patterns
of imagery.
 Language points
 amiss: wrong, inadequate
(sth.) not come/go amiss: it would be very welcome and
useful
e.g. A little calm and detachment wouldn’t come amiss.
 generate: (formal) cause (a situation or feeling) to begin,

esp. when it then continues to exist or develop by itself

e.g. - Technology by itself does not generate new ideas…
-This book will continue to generate excitement for a
long time…
- Tourism will generate new jobs.
 Language points
 attend to: deal with (e.g. a problem), see to
e.g. - I had two items of business to attend to before I could relax.
- If we do not attend to the problem, it will certainly grow.
 divert: cause to be used for a different purpose of activity
e.g. -We feel it desirable to divert funds from armaments to health
and education.
- If you don’t use it, you can divert the money into savings.
 alienate…from: emotionally or intellectually separate from,
estrange, isolate
e.g. - We live in an age in which people have been alienated from
their roots.
- The leadership must never become alienated from the ordinary
members.
- I felt alienated, angry and alone.
- …the growing feeling of despair and alienation
 Language points
 frame of mind: the mood that someone is in, which causes
him to have a particular attitude to something; humour
e.g. I’m not the right frame of mind for riddles.
 authentic: (painting, a piece of writing, etc.) genuine rather
than being an imitation; real; bona fide
e.g. - They inserted among the authentic documents several
that had been forged.
- It is an authentic Air Force jacket
 incongruous: strange for not fitting properly into the rest of
the event or situation
e.g.- He was an incongruous figure among the tourists.
-The sound of the horn hung in the air, lonely and incongruous.
-I was struck by the glaring incongruity of the scene. There I
was, my face dirty, my clothes torn; and there he was,
immaculate as usual.
 Language points
 amount to: have particular worth or importance; be
worth
e.g. - It is unlikely that the forthcoming talks will
amount to very much.
- What do these rumors amount to?
 priorities: a set of problems, considerations, or
courses of action, which need dealing with in a
particular order because some are more important
than others.
e.g. - There is little attempt to find out the priorities of
the public.
- The policeman had his priorities right.
 Language points
 categorically: positively
e.g. - The government have stated quite categorically
that we’re going to see a change in priorities.
- be categorical about: completely certain about;
positive
e.g. On this point we can be clear and categorical.
 propriety: (formal) correctness of behaviour in terms
of what is considered socially or morally acceptable
e.g. - What is questionable is the propriety of diluting
truth for the sake of a good story.
- I always try to write with propriety.