"euphemism" = metaphor or figure of speech

[Jonathan Lighter]

 Wiley Miller's syndicated panel cartoon "Non Sequitur" of March 3, 2005  depicts a Dilbert-like office worker blowing a huge police whistle and inducing an apparent heart attack in a older coworker.  A third employee observes,

    "How many times do I have to tell you, Ralph ?  Whistle-blower is just a euphemism...."

In my day, soon after the invention of humor, we concluded similar jokes with the phrase "just a figure of speech."  The framing talk balloon is quite big enough to contain the longer phrase.

The use of "euphemism" to mean "synonym" has already been commented on, IIRC.

Cf. "allegory," currently used almost exclusively to mean "metaphor" on live TV.

JL





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