Comments on: Weekend Word Wrap: Euphemisms

By: Megan Romer

Megan Romer — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:42:06 +0000

There’s also a scene in the film “Best in Show” where John Michael Higgins’s character refers to his gay partner as his “euphemism”. “Oh, and this is my euphemism, Stefan”.

By: John

John — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:11:44 +0000

Relations. My girlfriend and I don’t have sex. We have re-LAY-tions.

There was an animated (Dr. Seuss) TV-movie years ago where a youngster named Eukariah had to brave a winter storm to go outside “to use the euphemism.”

Let’s not forget the congressional page’s line in the movie 1776: “Rhode Island’s out visiting the ‘necessary’!”

By: Marcy

Marcy — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 15:34:05 +0000

There must be thousands of euphamisms for the toilet and its use. There are especially lots of very polite ones like restroom, girls/boys room, the loo, even bathroom. And to your point David, the word “euphamism” is also used as a euphamism for using the toilet as in “Excuse me while I go to the euphamism.”

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 18:08:42 +0000

My brother’s friend euphemism for sex is “the push-push.”

By: David

David — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 00:44:45 +0000

If it makes you feel any better, Pat, I’ve heard of dropping a deuce, and I agree that they are sometimes generational. Certainly “to line” isn’t in fashion any longer.

Wendell: We’re honored you’ve thought of us! And by the way, “euphemism” can be a euphemism, as well. Edward Albee, among others, used the word to mean skivvies, I believe.

By: Wendell Wittler

Wendell Wittler — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 00:28:39 +0000

That’s funny… I recently put on my own blog a suggestion for using veriations on “mental_floss” as a euphemism:
http://www.wendellwit.com/archives/372

â€œI want these mental_flossing snakes off this mental_flossing plane!â€
â€œSamuel L. Jackson is the baddest mental_flosser in the movies!â€
It works because it fits the meter of the profanity it’s replacing very well.

Other euphemisms I use include “Conducting a Symphony” for having an attack of diarrhea, since both involve several movements.

By: Pat

Pat — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:53:45 +0000

I thought that “dropping a deuce” was a very common euphamism, yet a guy I know who spent time in college, the military AND prison (all three ripe places for the development of euphamisms) had never heard of it. When I began to tell a few others of it, they hadn’t heard of this term either.

Many euphamisms are generational, and i wonder if this is one that is dying off in our more frank talking younger generation.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:11:46 +0000

In my family an unplanned pregnancy is called “a change of life baby”. I also really have an Aunt Flo, which has caused great confusion amongst my friends.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:30:01 +0000

To nitpick, Webster’s defines “casualty” in the wartime sense as “a military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, or capture or through being missing in action.” So technically, “casualty” is not just a euphemism for someone killed in a war. B.D. in “Doonesbury” is a casualty of the war in Iraq, for example.