In speech or writing, we use euphemism for dealing with taboo or sensitive subjects. It is therefore the language of evasion, hypocrisy, prudery, and deceit.
Explanation:
Euphemisms can soften uncomfortable topics or mislead listeners and readers. Their effect depends on the context of their use.
Euphemisms to Comfort Â
Euphemisms offer a way to reduce tension in conversation and make everyone involved feel more comfortable. Euphemisms can be used for the benefit of others without causing harm in many cases. For example, to be polite when speaking to a person grieving the recent loss of a loved one, the term "passed away" in place of "died" can ease some of the negative feelings the subject may cause.
Euphemisms can also make difficult conversations less awkward. Author Ralph Keyes touches on this: Civilized discourse would be impossible without recourse to indirection. Euphemisms give us tools to discuss touchy subjects without having to spell out what it is we're discussing (Keyes 2010).
Euphemisms to Disguise Â
Euphemistic language can be used to intentionally confuse and disorient others and the implications of this should not be taken lightly. They are used by some to package the truth into something more easily digestible and have been called "unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne," (Crisp 1985).
"Poor" is not a bad word. Replacing it with euphemisms such as "underprivileged" and "under-served" (as I do elsewhere in this book) are well-intentioned and sometimes helpful, but euphemisms are also dangerous. They can assist us in not seeing. They can form a scrim through which ugly truth is dimmed to our eyes. There are a lot of poor people in America, and their voices are largely silenced
(Schneider 2003).
Euphemisms to Shield Â
To speak euphemistically is to use language as a shield against the feared, the disliked, or the unpleasant. At their best, euphemisms avoid being offensive and have polite connotations. At the least, euphemisms seek to avoid too many negative connotations.
They are used to upgrade the denotatum (as a shield against scorn), they are used deceptively to conceal the unpleasant aspects of the denotatum (as a shield against anger), and they are used to display in-group identity (as a shield against the intrusion of out-groupers) (Allen and Burridge 1991).
Euphemisms to Spin Â
Euphemism is often considered a form of spin, used most notably by politicians, bureaucrats, and advertisers to pass something—an idea, policy, or product—off as attractive through disingenuous means. Such linguistic trickery is, of course, nothing new; its systematic and highly politicized use is thought to have its origins in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), where "newspeak" was the new language imposed by the state to restrict the lexicon of posterity, eliminate gradations of meaning, and, ultimately, control thought (Rosewarne 2013).
