Service of Euphemisms
Thursday, January 7th, 2021
Photo: “Now, now, it wasn’t a lie–it was a one-eighty.” fineartamerica.com
We’ve come a long way from the days of “sanitation engineer,” one of the first head scratching euphemisms I remember. Outrageous euphemisms are a first cousin of jargon which is top of my list of pet peeves.
The one that gets me these days is “food insecurity” when hunger says it all.
Photo: unitedway.org
The NBA wants team owners to be called “governor.” What’s wrong with owner? Others that get me are collateral damage and ethnic cleansing.
In “25 Terribly Misleading Euphemisms,” Amber Healy on INSH identified some that were unfamiliar to me: Take “compassion zone.” She explained that it refers to “an area within Kansas City designated for homeless people.” What about flashlight therapy? It’s “another way of saying a person is beaten by a flashlight, usually one carried by law enforcement officers.” She wrote that transfer tubes are what the military calls body bags and another way to refer to excrement is biosolids.
Do euphemisms that try to soften the truth irritate you? What are some you embrace?
Photo: kxan.com
