English Euphemism
Definition
Euphemism is a pleasant replacement for an objectionable word that has pejorative connotations, e.g. to pass on for “to die”. The word “euphemism” comes from ancient Greek. It is composed of three morphemes among which “eu-” means “being good or well”, “pheme-” means “to speak”, while “-ism” refers to an act or the result of an act. So euphemism means “speaking well of”.
Different ways of classifying euphemism
Euphemisms can be classified by various criteria. One criterion is whether the referent of the euphemism is a taboo or not. Euphemisms, which refer to taboo subjects such as death, secretion and excretion, sex and reproduction, are called traditional or negative euphemisms; those that are used as compliments or eulogies, are called stylistic or positive euphemisms. Some unpleasant (but not taboo) subjects are beautified by stylistic euphemisms. For example, garbage collector is replaced by sanitation engineer or garbologist; undertaker by funeral director or grief therapist.
Another criterion is whether the original meaning of the euphemism is lost or not. The uncouscious euphemisms have lost their original meanings and the euphemistic meanings are mistakenly regarded as the original ones, such as the
word cemetery functioning as the euphemism for graveyard as early as the 14th century. In fact, cemetery is derived from Greek in which it means dormitory or
sleeping place. In contrast, the conscious euphemisms carry both original and
euphemistic meanings. People are aware of the pun nature of them. For instance, if a lady says she wants to powder her nose, what she really means is to go to the toilet, and the listener will not misunderstand.
The register in which euphemisms are used can also serve as a criterion. By this criterion, euphemisms can fall into the following categories: war euphemisms (air support for bombing), political euphemisms (developing nation for poor and backward nation), religious euphemisms (Supreme Being for God), euphemisms
in the office (man management for telling other people what to do), euphemisms in the media (cub for inexperienced journalist), euphemisms in the hospital (mitotic disease for cancer).
Different social groups may use different euphemisms. For example, euphemisms used by Afro-Americans are called Black euphemisms, such as
bluebird for policeman, pig-meat for prostitute, rubber boots for condom.
In different English-speaking countries or even different regions within these countries, people have created their special euphemisms. So there are British euphemisms, American euphemisms, Australian euphemisms …
By the time of the usage or popularity, euphemisms can be classified as Medieval euphemisms, Victorian euphemisms, the 20th-century euphemisms
and Modern euphemisms.
The list of the criteria is much longer, but whatever criteria are employed in classification, they all help us to learn euphemisms systematically.
Formation devices
Most euphemisms are formed by morphological devices, phonetic devices, spelling devices, lexical devices, and rhetorical devices.
Morphological devices include word-forming methods such as compounding, back formation, acronymy and clipping. For instance, the word gezunda (夜壶)is a compound of goes and under；the word frag (蓄意杀伤[上级军官或同伴]) is backformed from fragmentation grenade; the acronym BM is formed from bowel movement (大便); the word lav is the clipped form of lavatory.
Phonetic distortion and rhyming slang are two phonetic devices. The former is to avoid the taboo word by deliberately changing its pronunciation. This method is often employed to address God (gad, gosh, good …) or Jesus Christ (Gee Whiz, Gees and Rice, Jeepers …). The latter is to replace the taboo word by a word
rhyming with it. For example, piss is often replaced by rhyming words such as
Cousin Sis, hit and miss, Mickey Bliss, rattle and hiss, etc.
Changing the spelling of taboo words is another method in euphemism formation. Backslang is to spell the taboo word in backward order, such as ecnop
for ponce (皮条客). Pig Latin is to move the 1st letter of the taboo word to the tail and hyphenate it with the rest part, such as uck-fay for fuck. Respelling of initials is to just spell the 1st letter of the taboo word, such as pee for piss. Sometimes, punctuations are used to replace the letters of the taboo word, such as d--- for
damn, f— for fuck. These punctuations are called euphemistic punctuations.
Lexical devices are often employed to attain euphemistic objective. The most common device is substitution of synonyms, that is, to substitute a taboo word with a synonym either neutral or pejorative in meaning, for instance, agent for spy, speculator for gambler, silencer for murderer. Borrowing is a favorite method for
intellectuals or students, especially in the Victorian Age. They preferred the French, Latin or Greek words to their equivalents in Anglo-Saxon origin. Consequentially, words such as lingerie, derrière and urination sound more elegant than underwear,
arse and piss.
Figures of speech are also effective means to serve euphemistic function. These rhetorical devices include metaphorical transfer (as in meat technologist for butcher), metonymical transfer (as in chest for breast), negation (as in unwise for stupid), understatement (as in the needy for the poor) and periphrasis (as in
visually retarded for blind).
Euphemisms and culture
In almost all cultures there are certain terms either strongly forbidden by social customs or sounding disagreeable or offensive to language users. Generally
people tend to replace such terms with pleasant expressions that are called “euphemisms”. In spite of the universal existence in languages, euphemisms are not identical in different languages. And this disparity is mainly caused by cultural divergence, because what is forbidden or what is offensive varies from culture to culture.
The cultural discrepancy of euphemisms can be found in two aspects. First, what is euphemized in one culture may not be euphemized in another. Take English and Chinese for example. English-speaking people lock such topics as age, marital status and personal income into the taboo box; while Chinese are quite open to these topics. For English people, “old” is very offensive，especially to females; hence, it is replaced with “golden years” or “past one’s prime”; in contrast, Chinese people often associate old age with such concepts as being respectable or being experienced, as in “敬老院” and “老”. Second, even for the same taboo subject, how to euphemize differs from culture to culture. For instance, death is a taboo for both Chinese and English-speaking people. However, in English, some death-related euphemisms originate in biblical stories or ancient Greek mythology. Among them are “be in Abraham’s bosom”, “return to dust”, “cross the River Styx” and “sup with Pluto”. In Chinese, Buddhism and folk stories have produced many death-related euphemisms, such as 圆寂，灭度and驾鹤西去.
Thus, with an awareness of the cultural discrepancy of euphemisms and with a good knowledge of the target culture, can we obtain a good grasp of euphemisms. This is another prerequisite for successful cross-cultural communication.
