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A euphemism (/ ˈ juː f ə m ɪ z əm / YOO-fə-miz-əm) is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. [1] Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes to downplay.
An example of this is the United States Department of Defense, which won the award three times, in 1991, 1993, and 2001. For the 1991 award, the United States Department of Defense "swept the first six places in the Doublespeak top ten" [26] for using euphemisms like "servicing the target" (bombing) and "force packages" (warplanes). Among the ...
Circumlocution is often used by people with aphasia and people learning a new language, where simple terms can be paraphrased to aid learning or communication (for example, paraphrasing the word "grandfather" as "the father of one's father"). Among other usages, circumlocution can be used to construct euphemisms, innuendos, and equivocations.
Flipping, used as a euphemism for fucking, is a slang term first recorded 1911 by DH Lawrence in The White Peacock. A popular combination with heck to make Flipping Heck, serves as a minced oath of the phrase Fucking Hell. Norman Mailer's novel The Naked and the Dead [6] uses "fug" in place of "fuck" throughout. [7] [8] [9]
A euphemism is a mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsher, blunter, or more offensive term.. It may also substitute a description of something or someone to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers.
Creative accounting is a euphemism referring to accounting practices that may follow the letter of the rules of standard accounting practices, but deviate from the spirit of those rules with questionable accounting ethics—specifically distorting results in favor of the "preparers", or the firm that hired the accountant. [1]
To be economical with the truth literally means to avoid revealing too much of the truth. While the idea may have an approbatory sense of prudence or diplomacy, the phrase is often either used euphemistically to denote dissimulation (misleading by withholding pertinent information) or else used ironically to mean outright lying.
It is used as a euphemism or circumlocution meaning a lie, an untruth, or a substantially correct but technically inaccurate statement. Churchill first used the phrase following the 1906 election . Speaking in the House of Commons on 22 February 1906 as Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office , he had occasion to repeat what he had said during ...