Euphemisms in English: Telling it How it Isn’t (With Exercises!)

They’re used as a way of avoiding taboos or sensitive topics, and English is full of them. If someone has ‘passed away’, what we really mean is that they’ve died. It’s just a less direct way of sharing the bad news. To say a child is ‘displaying challenging behaviour’ is a less judgmental alternative to saying they’re naughty. Euphemisms are also employed to be polite (some people might say ‘prudish’) about how the body works. “I’m just going to freshen up” probably means, “I’m just going to piss” but without actually saying that.

Too sexy

The more taboo the issue, the more euphemisms there are to describe it, so death and bodily functions are obviously high on the list. But let’s not forget intimacy and sex. Imagine two American teenagers meet at a party, they get on well and end up making out. In Britain a similar couple might ‘get off with each other’. But whichever euphemistic phrasal verb you prefer, the essence is the same – not quite sex but possibly heading in that direction.

And of course asking, “Did you sleep together?” would not be a question about sleeping at all, in fact exactly the opposite. The potentially taboo topic of pregnancy can be avoided using all kinds of euphemisms too, from the simple, ‘to be expecting’, to the wonderfully evocative ‘to have a bun in the oven’!

Drink and drugs

The consumption of alcohol and drugs has inspired so many euphemisms that it’s hard to know where to begin. ‘To have had a few’ is a particularly common one (translation: to be pretty drunk.) And as the level of drunkenness increases, some people prefer to describe themselves euphemistically as being ‘tired and emotional.’ There are of course other less respectable slang terms for the same thing including: ‘smashed’, ‘trashed’, ‘wrecked’ and ‘hammered’. Regarding drugs, if you’re in a bar and someone goes out to ‘powder their nose’, be aware that the powder is much more likely to reach their nose via a rolled-up banknote than a makeup brush.

Corporate code

The workplace is famously full of euphemistic expressions, mostly designed to make the employees’ situation sound better than it is. When a CEO says that the company is ‘downsizing’, what they mean is cutting jobs. So if your boss then invites you into her office and tells you: “We’re going to have to ‘let you go’,” don’t be deceived. You’re not being offered extra holidays… you’re being fired.

Ooh la la!

There are a couple of specific techniques for creating a euphemism that we should mention here. One is to switch language when you arrive at the uncomfortable part of the sentence. Using the French word ‘faux’ instead of the English ‘fake’ is softer; ‘au contraire’ is less aggressive than ‘you’re wrong.’

Doublespeak

So euphemisms are used to be sensitive, to avoid taboo topics, to make things sound better than they are. But what about when politicians use euphemisms? Is the use of indirect language in fact a dangerous attempt by politicians to hide or distort the truth? Writer George Orwell certainly thought so. In his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language he condemns vague political language as, “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.”

The term ‘doublespeak’ is now commonly used for this manipulative use of euphemistic language in political discourse. Politicians regularly talk of prisoners being subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’ To most of us it sounds like torture. Neutralizing a foreign regime’s WMDs sounds much more doable and less terrifying than engaging with their weapons of mass destruction. No political leader wants to admit that their army has killed or wounded civilians. To say instead that there has been ‘collateral damage’ isn’t exactly lying but it’s certainly not telling the truth either. Politicians might say – euphemistically – that it’s just ‘being economical with the truth.’ 

Exercises

1. Match these words used in the report to their synonyms

2. Write the correct word in the gaps. The first letter and a description are given in brackets to help you.

a) Euphemisms are often used to (a) ______ (escape from) taboos or sensitive topics.

b) Usually the more taboo the (i) ______ (topic), the more euphemisms there are to describe it.

c) Euphemisms are also (e) ______ (used) to be polite about bodily functions.

d) The use of indirect language is a dangerous (a) ______ (effort) to hide the truth.

e) Euphemistic expressions are (d) ______ (devised) to make a situation look better than it is.

f) Sometimes politicians use indirect language to (d) ______ (misrepresent) the truth.

3. Unscramble the letters to create words used in the report. The first letter of  the word is given to help you.

Answers:

1. Essence: e, f, i;
   Technique: a, c, h;
   Alternative: b, d, g.
2. a) avoid, b) issue, c) employed, d) attempt, e) designed, f) distort.
3. a) intimacy, b) workplace, c) consumption, d) expression, e) employee, f) drunkenness.