euphemisms

[Benjamin Barrett]

There are interesting follow-ups to whether "bathroom" is a euphemism. One person notes that "shitcloset" is not used; while that's a new one to me, I have heard "shitter" many times.

I've been meaning to see if I can spot a clear example where "stomach" means "intestines." AFAIK, "stomach pain" often refers to intestinal pain (at least I have been working on getting those correct for several years).

Words describing physical conditions have social restrictions. Words such as "hemorrhoids" and "diarrhea" ("the runs") cannot be used with the same freedom as "headache" and "sprained wrist." I think that restriction is different from the one governing terminal and serious illnesses.

As for "room business" (fang shi, likely 房事) mentioned in the Economic article, Lisa See uses "bed business" in her novel "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" (http://ow.ly/88ziE). I do not know if they are the same or not. I believe the word "bed business" was used in the film as well.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Dec 22, 2011, at 10:59 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> 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.
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org