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Time to call a spade a spade
The age of euphemism
David Woods
"Heck on wheels," proclaims a Philadelphia Inquirer headline about a roller derby.
Heck? I mean, what next? Heck's Angels? War is Heck? Heck hath no fury?
One wonders: How can modern society, with its bandying about of the F word and its graphic depiction of sex in theater and film, be so squeamish about language?
By definition, euphemism means substituting a favorable for a more accurate or possibly offensive expression. Literally, it means "fair of speech." Thus there are no longer any old people, only senior citizens; the poor have become the underprivileged; drug addicts are the chemically dependent, and people don't die, they pass away. Or go to their reward. And nobody's fired"“ they're downsized, or let go.
Bowdler's crusade
How happy Thomas Bowdler would've been with these developments. After spending years in medicine, travel and philanthropy as well as some study of childhood education, Bowdler (1754-1825) set out to purify the works of Shakespeare. In 1807 he produced a Family Shakespeare in which he "endeavoured to remove every thing that could give just offense to the religious and virtuous mind," omitting words and expressions "which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." (In Bowdler's Hamlet, Ophelia dies accidentally rather than by suicide.)
The word Bowdlerize was first used in print in 1836 and became a term of abuse. The Victorian age that Bowdler ushered in became the heyday of euphemism, a time when pregnant women were described as being in an interesting condition, trousers were referred to as nether garments and it was even suggested, perhaps jocularly, that piano legs be covered up lest viewing them might arouse lascivious thoughts.
Today, according to Fowler's Modern English Usage, euphemism is used less in finding discreet terms for what is indelicate than as a protective device for governments and as a token of a new approach to psychological and sociological problems. It's especially notorious in totalitarian countries, where assassination and aggression can be made to look respectable by calling them "liquidation" and "liberation."
Orwell's lament
George Orwell, whose writing was clear and spare, had no use for euphemism. He suggested that political language consists largely of question begging and cloudiness. For example: "Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets"“ this is called pacification."
The late Theodore M. Bernstein, in his 1965 book The Careful Writer, noted that the less intelligent and less educated tend to be most addicted to these linguistic evasions. These are the people who refer to every man as a gentleman, as did the reporter who referred to the Norwegian "gentleman" who killed 77 people.
Bernstein optimistically believed that such genteel-isms are passing. But not quite yet. We might still be exhorted not to let our dog "go to the bathroom" in the street, and human ablutions are also euphemized as in "making a pit stop" and "answering the call of nature."
Real estate jargon
And euphemism still infests such fields as real estate and sports. A house described as a compact, jewel residence in an up-and-coming area might very well be too small to accommodate your flat screen TV and located in a slum. An athlete described as having experienced "some off-field issues in the past" was probably habitually drunk and/or drug addicted.
Even so, the process of expurgation and euphemism flourishes in ever more creative ways. For example, au naturel is a phrase that covers up nudity, and prisons are now known as correction facilities. Similarly, British newspapers are not allowed to describe a British politician as drunk, but only as appearing "tired and emotional."
Euphemisms have clearly not passed away. But what the heck.♦
To read responses, click here.
Heck? I mean, what next? Heck's Angels? War is Heck? Heck hath no fury?
One wonders: How can modern society, with its bandying about of the F word and its graphic depiction of sex in theater and film, be so squeamish about language?
By definition, euphemism means substituting a favorable for a more accurate or possibly offensive expression. Literally, it means "fair of speech." Thus there are no longer any old people, only senior citizens; the poor have become the underprivileged; drug addicts are the chemically dependent, and people don't die, they pass away. Or go to their reward. And nobody's fired"“ they're downsized, or let go.
Bowdler's crusade
How happy Thomas Bowdler would've been with these developments. After spending years in medicine, travel and philanthropy as well as some study of childhood education, Bowdler (1754-1825) set out to purify the works of Shakespeare. In 1807 he produced a Family Shakespeare in which he "endeavoured to remove every thing that could give just offense to the religious and virtuous mind," omitting words and expressions "which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." (In Bowdler's Hamlet, Ophelia dies accidentally rather than by suicide.)
The word Bowdlerize was first used in print in 1836 and became a term of abuse. The Victorian age that Bowdler ushered in became the heyday of euphemism, a time when pregnant women were described as being in an interesting condition, trousers were referred to as nether garments and it was even suggested, perhaps jocularly, that piano legs be covered up lest viewing them might arouse lascivious thoughts.
Today, according to Fowler's Modern English Usage, euphemism is used less in finding discreet terms for what is indelicate than as a protective device for governments and as a token of a new approach to psychological and sociological problems. It's especially notorious in totalitarian countries, where assassination and aggression can be made to look respectable by calling them "liquidation" and "liberation."
Orwell's lament
George Orwell, whose writing was clear and spare, had no use for euphemism. He suggested that political language consists largely of question begging and cloudiness. For example: "Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets"“ this is called pacification."
The late Theodore M. Bernstein, in his 1965 book The Careful Writer, noted that the less intelligent and less educated tend to be most addicted to these linguistic evasions. These are the people who refer to every man as a gentleman, as did the reporter who referred to the Norwegian "gentleman" who killed 77 people.
Bernstein optimistically believed that such genteel-isms are passing. But not quite yet. We might still be exhorted not to let our dog "go to the bathroom" in the street, and human ablutions are also euphemized as in "making a pit stop" and "answering the call of nature."
Real estate jargon
And euphemism still infests such fields as real estate and sports. A house described as a compact, jewel residence in an up-and-coming area might very well be too small to accommodate your flat screen TV and located in a slum. An athlete described as having experienced "some off-field issues in the past" was probably habitually drunk and/or drug addicted.
Even so, the process of expurgation and euphemism flourishes in ever more creative ways. For example, au naturel is a phrase that covers up nudity, and prisons are now known as correction facilities. Similarly, British newspapers are not allowed to describe a British politician as drunk, but only as appearing "tired and emotional."
Euphemisms have clearly not passed away. But what the heck.♦
To read responses, click here.
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