wide array of death euphemisms

[Baker, John]

        I confess that I did not find the introductory portion of the message from Kara Everman to be very clear.  She wrote, "to identify with the life philosophy of laughing instead of crying where trouble is concerned is the fact of a wide array of these death euphemisms."  Who is it that is identifying, and what, precisely, is the fact?

        There are a number of euphemisms and slang terms for death, but not as many as for sex, drunkenness, or defecation.  Humor is a frequent element of slang and of euphemism, so I don't think the apparent claim that these terms reveal a life philosophy stands up.

        Some, but not all, of these phrases have previously been discussed on the ADS-L list; see the searchable archive at http://www.americandialect.org/adslarchive.html.  Standard reference works, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and the Historical Dictionary of American Slang (for letters A - O), should also have information on their sources.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Robert Wachal
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 4:10 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: wide array of death euphemisms


I fail to understand why some folks would get their underpants in a twist
over the harmless lack of punctuation in the very clear unpunctuated two
lines of the message from Kara Everman. I for one am tired of these
"barbarians are at the gates" attitudes. Considering the slaughter and
starvation going on throughout the world, is the fact of a few missing
commas really worthy of comment and parody?

At 12:36 PM 8/31/2004, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: wide array of death euphemisms
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Thanks Mark this is a new phenomenon I encounter all the time in
>undergraduate and especially email writing it annoys me too whatever
>happened to freshman comp?!
>
>At 01:10 PM 8/31/2004 -0400, you wrote:
> >         >>>>>
> >Date:    Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:05:08 EDT
> >From:    Kara Everman <Karaeverman at AOL.COM>
> >Subject: wide array of death euphemisms
> >
> >to identify with the life philosophy of laughing instead of crying where
> >trouble is concerned is the fact of a wide array of these death euphemisms
> >to buy the farm
> >to bite the dust
> >curtains
> >to kick the bucket
> >to punch ones ticket
> >to sleep with the fishes
> >to meet ones maker
> >  where do these euphemisms originate and how are they made
> >         <<<<<
> >