euphemisms

[Victor Steinbok]

The Economist end-of-year issue has a piece on euphemisms, including
some cross-cultural issues with Chinese and Japanese euphemisms.

http://goo.gl/TPNBh

I am not going to get into the details, except to say that Kevin Drum
takes exception.

http://goo.gl/Hwvkq
> Yesterday I bought a copy of the Economist's annual holiday issue,
> which is always full of good stuff. It includes a piece about
> euphemisms around the world, and it started off a bit oddly by
> suggesting, among other things, that Americans routinely call false
> teeth "dental appliances." Really? Well, I thought, maybe we do. What
> do I know about what dentures are usually called? But then I ran
> across this:
>
>>         The richest categories would centre on cross-cultural taboos
>>         such as death and bodily functions. The latter seem to
>>         embarrass Americans especially: one can ask for the “loo” in
>>         a British restaurant without budging an eyebrow; don’t try
>>         that in New York.
>>
> Say what? We don't use the word "loo," of course, but here in Southern
> California I ask waiters for directions to the men's room all the
> time. The only thing that happens is that they.....tell me where it
> is. Unless this is some kind of weird New York thing, I'm pretty
> mystified by this. I hope the rest of their reporting on global
> euphemisms is more accurate than this.

VS-)

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