Euphemisms are polite, mild phrases which substitute unpleasant ways of saying something sad or uncomfortable.
Euphemism (pronounced yoo-fuh-miz-uhm) is derived from the Greek phrase euphēmismos, meaning “to sound good.”
Euphemisms are often used in everyday speech to soften difficult situations. Here are a few examples of euphemism:
We have to let you go , Tyler.
To “let someone go” is to fire someone. This is a euphemism that sounds much nicer than the harsh truth of the situation.
She’s a curvy woman.
“Curvy” is often used as a euphemism for “overweight.”
Jimmy was sent to a correctional facility .
A “correctional facility” is a more professional and nicer-sounding phrase than “jail” or “prison.”
Euphemisms allow us to soften otherwise difficult or unpleasant things when we speak, especially to children, or people who might be offended or disturbed by the situation we are talking about. They can be used to shelter children from adult subjects, avoid awkward moments of truth with loved ones, and avoid politically incorrect phrasings in public. Political correctness and politeness are both filled with euphemistic phrases. The high usage of euphemisms by organizations and individuals in formal documents and everyday conversation alike shows how much we value politeness.
Euphemisms are used in literature just as they are used in everyday speech: to soften otherwise difficult or harsh situations with nicer phrases. Here is an example of euphemism in poetry:
When I said
I have to lay you off
a parallel universe was born
in his face, one where flesh
is a loose shirt
taken to the river and beaten
against rocks. Just
by opening my mouth I destroyed
his faith
. . .
We sat.
I stared at my hands, he stared
at the wall staring at my hands.
I said other things
about the excellent work he’d done
and the cycles of business
which are like
the roller-coaster thoughts
of an oscilloscope.
In Bob Hicok’s poem “Dropping the Euphemism” a boss uses the euphemism “I have to lay you off” for firing someone. He continues to discuss “the cycles of business,” meaning the need for firing and hiring certain people depending on the financial failure or success of the business. The fact that he “destroys the faith” of his employee, though, shows that the euphemism does not have the softening effect intended. As we’ll see, people are often criticized for using euphemisms to avoid the plain truth, especially if they’re just doing it to make themselves sound better.
For another example of euphemism in literature, read this excerpt from George Orwell’s 1984:
No word in the B vocabulary was ideologically neutral. A great many were euphemisms. Such words, for instance, as joycamp (forced-labour camp) or Minipax Ministry of Peace , i. e. Ministry of War) meant almost the exact opposite of what they appeared to mean.
In 1984, the totalitarian government, also euphemistically called English Socialism, uses many euphemisms to soften the reality of its policies of eternal war and brainwashing its citizens.
For an example of euphemisms, listen to “Shake Your Euphemism” by the Blue Man Group, a song which collects numerous euphemisms for a person’s rear end: