1.3 The evolution of euphemisms
Euphemisms may be formed in a number of ways. Periphrasis or circumlocution is one of the most common — to "speak around" a given word, implying it without saying it. Over time, circumlocutions become recognized as established euphemisms for particular words or ideas.
To alter the pronunciation or spelling of a taboo word (such as a swear word) to form a euphemism is known as taboo deformation. There is an astonishing number of taboo deformations in English, of which many refer to the infamous four-letter words. In American English, words which are unacceptable on television, such as fuck, may be represented by deformations such as freak — even in children's cartoons. Some examples of Cockney rhyming slang may serve the same purpose — to call a person a berk sounds less offensive than to call him a cunt, though berk is short for Berkeley Hunt which rhymes with cunt.
Bureaucracies such as the military and large corporations frequently spawn euphemisms of a more deliberate (and to some, more sinister) nature. Organizations coin doublespeak expressions to describe objectionable actions in terms that seem neutral or inoffensive. For example, a term used in the past for contamination by radioactive isotopes is Sunshine units.
Military organizations kill people, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by mistake; in doublespeak, the first may be called neutralizing the target and the second collateral damage. Violent destruction of non-state enemies may be referred to as pacification. Two common terms when a soldier is accidentally killed (buys the farm) by their own side are friendly fire or blue on blue (BOBbing) — "buy the farm" has its own interesting history.
Execution is an established euphemism referring to the act of putting a person to death, with or without judicial process. It originally referred to the execution, i.e., the carrying out, of a death warrant, which is an authorization to a sheriff, prison warden, or other official to put a named person to death. In legal usage, execution can still refer to the carrying out of other types of orders; for example, in U.S. legal usage, a writ of execution is a direction to enforce a civil money judgment by seizing property. Likewise, lethal injection itself may be considered a euphemism for putting the convict to death by poisoning.
Abortion originally meant premature birth, and came to mean birth before viability. The term "abort" was extended to mean any kind of premature ending, such as aborting the launch of a rocket. Euphemisms have developed around the original meaning. Abortion, by itself, came to mean induced abortion or elective abortion exclusively. Hence the parallel term spontaneous abortion, an "act of nature", was dropped in favor of the more neutral-sound miscarriage [37, p. 137].
Industrial unpleasantness such as pollution may be toned down to outgassing or runoff — descriptions of physical processes rather than their damaging consequences. Some of this may simply be the application of precise technical terminology in the place of popular usage, but beyond precision, the advantage of technical terminology may be its lack of emotional undertones and the likelihood the general public (at least initially) will not recognize it for what it really is; the disadvantage being the lack of real-life context. Terms like "waste" and "wastewater" are also avoided in favor of terms such as byproduct, recycling, reclaimed water and effluent. In the oil industry, oil-based drilling muds were simply renamed organic phase drilling muds, where organic phase is a euphemism for "oil".
Latinate Roots of Euphemisms
A great number of euphemisms in English come from words with Latinate roots. Farb (1974) writes that after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066,
"…the community began to make a distinction between a genteel and an obscene vocabulary, between the Latinate words of the upper class and the lusty Anglo-Saxon of the lower. That is why a duchess perspired and expectorated and menstruated--while a kitchen maid sweated and spat and bled." [28, p. 46-49]
The linguistic differences between earthy, direct Anglo-Saxon words and elegant, often euphemistic Latinate words have been largely ignored in language learning, despite the fact that knowledge of these differences is essential to natural, native like use of English. Similarly, euphemisms themselves - Latinate or otherwise--have been ignored in language learning, even though they are usually semantically opaque to learners and continue to be invented and employed.
Below is a short glossary of common words with some of their current, popular euphemisms. (Some euphemisms, it will be seen, have become euphemized themselves.) Following the glossary is a lesson for learners at the intermediate level.
1.4 The etymology of euphemisms
The word euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemo, meaning "auspicious/good/fortunate speech/kind" which in turn is derived from the Greek root-words eu (ευ), "good/well" + pheme (φήμη) "speech/speaking". The eupheme was originally a word or phrase used in place of a religious word or phrase that should not be spoken aloud; etymologically, the eupheme is the opposite of the blaspheme (evil-speaking). The primary example of taboo words requiring the use of a euphemism are the unspeakable names for a deity, such as Persephone, Hecate, or Nemesis [24, p. 159]
Historical linguistics has revealed traces of taboo deformations in many languages. Several are known to have occurred in Indo-European languages, including the original Proto-Indo-European words for bear (*rtkos), wolf (*wlkwos), and deer (originally, hart; the deformation likely occurred to avoid confusion with heart). In different Indo-European languages, each of these words has a difficult etymology because of taboo deformations — a euphemism was substituted for the original, which no longer occurs in the language. An example is the Slavic root for bear — *medu-ed-, which means "honey eater". One example in English is "donkey" replacing the old Indo-European-derived word "ass". The word "dandelion" (lit., tooth of lion, referring to the shape of the leaves) is another example, being a substitute for pissenlit, meaning "wet the bed", a possible reference to the fact that dandelion was used as a diuretic [17, p. 46]
In some languages of the Pacific, using the name of a deceased chief is taboo. Amongst indigenous Australians, it is forbidden to use the name, image, or audio-visual recording of the deceased, so that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation now publishes a warning to indigenous Australians when using names, images or audio-visual recordings of people who have died.
Since people are often named after everyday things, this leads to the swift development of euphemisms. These languages have a very high rate of vocabulary change [3, p.167].
In a similar manner, classical Chinese texts were expected to avoid using characters contained within the name of the currently ruling emperor as a sign of respect. In these instances, the relevant ideographs were replaced by homophones. While this practice creates an additional wrinkle for anyone attempting to read or translate texts from the classical period, it does provide a fairly accurate means of dating the documents under consideration.
The common names of illicit drugs, and the plants used to obtain them, often undergo a process similar to taboo deformation, because new terms are devised in order to discuss them secretly in the presence of others. This process often occurs in English (e.g. speed or crank for meth). It occurs even more in Spanish, e.g. the deformation of names for cannabis: mota (lit., "something which moves" on the black market), replacing grifa (lit., "something coarse to the touch"), replacing marihuana (a female personal name, María Juana), replacing cañamo (the original Spanish name for the plant, derived from the Latin genus name Cannabis). All four of these names are still used in various parts of the Hispanophone world, although cañamo ironically has the least underworld connotation, and is often used to describe industrial hemp, or legitimate medically-prescribed cannabis [19, p. 107]
1.5 Taboos and euphemisms
Introduction euphemisms and dysphemisms is better to do with the defining terms "euphemism" and "dysphemism". "A euphemism is used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one's own face or, through giving offence, that of the audience, or some third party" [5, p. 41]. Euphemism is a word or an expression that people use instead of indecent, indelicate, rude, too direct or impolite words and expressions. The opposite sides of euphemisms are taboo words and dysphemisms. "A dysphemism is an expression with connotations that are offensive either about the denotatum or to the audience, or both, and it is substituted for a neutral or euphemistics expression for just that reason" [18, p. 76]. It is important to say that euphemisms are opposed with taboo words because of cause and effect relations. Dysphemisms are opposed with euphemisms because of the evaluation content basis. The function of dysphemisms is to aggravate a denotatum with any evaluation content at the expense of more negative one.
A dysphemism is a word or an expression that is generally used to offend somebody deliberately. It paints a negative picture without seemingly lying. For example the phrase "My boss is something else" doesn't carry something swearing bit it is slanted towards negativity.
What is actually considered to be euphemistic and what is considered to be dysphemistic depends on the speaker and the way he or she interprets the message. At the same time a euphemism may loose its ennobling characteristics and turn into a dysphemism and it is required to be replaced. For example, the word "black" was a euphemism for the word with a negative connotation "negro" [21, p. 60]. But the frequent using the word "black" as a euphemism had deleted its meaning and has transferred the word "black" to the category of the direct names.
The psychological aspect pays attention to "straight to the generating motives".
In lexicology the studying of euphemisms and dysphemisms from the psychological point of view is well-done. At present according to the generating motives there are five groups of euphemisms that have appeared because of: 1) superstition, 2) the feeling of fear, 3) sympathy and compassion, 4) the feeling of shame and, 5) the feeling of politeness.
To V. I. Zabotkina's opinion some pragmatic reasons are the base of the generating motives. At first, it is a politeness, which has defined the creation of euphemisms for physical and mental defects. Secondly, taboo words, when euphemisms were used instead of direct names of diseases and deaths. Thirdly, it's the influence the general readers. Fourthly, it's restricness, which has influenced the creation of euphemisms within the different social illegal groups [23, p.98-103].
According to А. M. Kacev's classification of generating motives there are three emotional spheres: fear, odium and shame [24, p. 68].
Linguists say these or those emotions are generating motives for the creation both euphemisms and dysphemisms. And perhaps the development of nominations with pejorative evaluation content was the base of making dysphemisms.
At present this kind of words gets into high level of vocabulary. Using words with negative meaning and invectives the speaker feels the magic influence that he or she is everything allowed. The domination of such words is a natural thing because people perceive negative sides of life more violent than positive ones. The latter is regarded as normal and that is why they are less emotive. Of course it is easier to hold somebody up to shame than to praise somebody to the skies.
The general classification of euphemisms and dysphemisms from the psychological point of view can be represented in a table.
2. SEMANTIC WORLD BEHIND EUPHEMISMS
2.1 Classification of euphemisms on the thematic principle
Many euphemisms fall into one or more of these categories:
Terms of foreign and/or technical origin (derrière, copulation, perspire, urinate, security breach, mierda de toro, prophylactic, feces occur, sheisst).
Abbreviations (SOB for son of a bitch, BS for bullshit, TS for tough shit, SOL for shit out of luck or PDQ for pretty damn(ed) quick. BFD for big fucking deal, STFU or STHU for shut the fuck/hell up, RTFM for read the fucking manual).
Abbreviations using a spelling alphabet, especially in military contexts (Charlie Foxtrot for "Cluster fuck", Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Oscar for "What the fuck, over?", Bravo Sierra for "bullshit" — See Military slang).
Plays on abbreviations (H-e-double hockey sticks for "hell", "a-double snakes" or "a-double-dollar-signs" for "ass", Sugar Honey Iced Tea for "shit", bee with an itch or witch with a capital B for "bitch", catch (or see) you next Tuesday (or Thursday) for "cunt").
Use in mostly clinical settings (PITA for "pain in the ass" patient).
Abbreviations for phrases that are not otherwise common (PEBKAC for "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair", ID Ten T Error or ID-10T Error for "Idiot", TOBAS for "Take Out Back And Shoot") [6, p. 94].
Abstractions and ambiguities (it for excrement, the situation for pregnancy, going to the other side for death, do it or come together in reference a sexual act, tired and emotional for drunkenness.).
Indirections (behind, unmentionables, privates, live together, go to the bathroom, sleep together, sub-navel activities).
Mispronunciation (goldarnit, dadgummit, efing c (fucking cunt), freakin, be-atch,shoot — See minced oath).
Litotes or reserved understatement (not exactly thin for "fat", not completely truthful for "lied", not unlike cheating for "an instance of cheating").
Changing nouns to modifiers (makes her look slutty for "is a slut", right-wing element for "Right Wing").
Slang (for eg. pot for marijuana, laid for sex and so on).
There is some disagreement over whether certain terms are or are not euphemisms. For example, sometimes the phrase visually impaired is labeled as a politically correct euphemism for blind. However, visual impairment can be a broader term, including, for example, people who have partial sight in one eye, or even those with uncorrected poor vision, a group that would be excluded by the word blind [11, p. 65].
There are three antonyms of euphemism: dysphemism, cacophemism, and power word. The first can be either offensive or merely humorously deprecating with the second one generally used more often in the sense of something deliberately offensive. The last is used mainly in arguments to make a point seem more correct.
2.1.1 Religious euphemisms
Euphemisms for deities as well as for religious practices and artifacts date to the earliest of written records. Protection of sacred names, rituals, and concepts from the uninitiated has always given rise to euphemisms, whether it be for exclusion of outsiders or the retention of power among select practitioners. Examples from the Egyptians and every other western religion abound.
Euphemisms for God and Jesus, such as gosh and gee, are used by Christians to avoid taking the name of God in a vain oath, which would violate one of the Ten Commandments.
When praying, Jews will typically use the word "Adonai" ('my Lord'). However, when in a colloquial setting, this is deemed inappropriate among Jews, and so typically Jews replace the word "Adonai" with the word "HaShem", which literally means, "The Name". It is notable that "Adonai" is itself a word that refers to the Jewish God's name, יהוה or YHWH, the original pronunciation of which is unknown due to a lack of vowels. It was translated as Jehovah for some centuries, but scholars now agree that it was more likely Yahweh. Traditionally, Jews have seen the name of God as ineffable and thus one that must not be spoken. According to the Torah, when Moses saw the burning bush, he asked God, "who are you?" The answer he heard was, "I am that I am". Thus, Jews have for centuries thought that the name of the Almighty is ineffable, because according to their logic pronouncing it would be equivalent to calling oneself God [6, p. 86].
Euphemisms for hell, damnation, and the devil, on the other hand, are often used to avoid invoking the power of the adversary. The most famous in the latter category is the expression what the dickens and its variants, which does not refer to the famed British writer but instead was a popular euphemism for Satan in its time. In the Harry Potter books, the evil wizard Lord Voldemort is usually referred to as "He Who Must Not Be Named" or "You-Know-Who". However, the character Professor Dumbledore is quoted as saying in the first book of the series that "Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself".