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Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 21:02:01 -0800 (PST)
From: wsmith@wordsmith.org
To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--euphemism
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euphemism (YOO-fuh-miz-em) noun

   Use of a mild, neutral, evasive, or vague term in place of one considered
   taboo, offensive, blunt, or unpleasant.

[From Greek euphemismos, from euphemos (auspicious), from eu- + pheme
(speaking).]

   "Two-and-a-half months after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, President
   Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the notorious Executive Order 9066. As a
   result, more than 110,000 Japanese, virtually all the Japanese-Americans
   on the mainland, were `evacuated to concentration camps' in remote parts
   of America's mountain states. The words were his, though they were soon
   replaced in official parlance by the euphemism, `reception centres'."
   Books And Arts: The Consequences of Terror; Japanese Internment in
   America (book review), The Economist (London), Sep 22, 2001.

More examples:
collateral damage for civilian casualties,
second-hand for used,
pre-owned for second-hand,
pre-loved for pre-owned,
budget for cheap,
pass away for die,
sanitation worker for garbage collector,
convivial for drunkard.

This week's theme: words about words.

Today's AWAD is brought to you by NannyTax, Inc., providing tax compliance
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It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
-Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)

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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/euphemism.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/euphemism.ram