the new "euphemism"

[Jonathan Lighter]

As long as we're at it, CNN has just labeled the young people who won't
sign up for Obamacare as "The Young Invincibles."

What they mean is "The Young Invulnerables."

Though the words are not "euphemisms" for each other, this isn't quite as
bad as some of the others.  But saying the syllables "vulnerable" might
suggest, preconciously, that maybe America's youth really is a bunch of
wusses.  Which would be un-American.

JL


On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 8:56 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: the new "euphemism"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Dec 22, 2013, at 1:21 AM, John Doe wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 12:28 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wrote:
> >
> >> I would maintain, though, that "euphemisms for the vagina" are not the
> >> same as "euphemisms for 'vagina'".  (By deleting the article, you're
> >> turning a reference to the body part into a reference to the word for
> it.)
> >> The latter is, I agree, odd, although it might be argued that that's
> >> precisely the much-needed gap that 'va-jay-jay' fills.  But "euphemisms
> for
> >> *the* vagina", interpreted as 'euphemistic expressions to refer to (or
> >> avoid referring directly to) the vagina', is not (as) odd.  Modulo the
> fact
> >> that we're often not talking about the vagina here but rather
> euphemistic
> >> expressions for referring to the vulva.
> >
> >
> > It's spreading to the womb, which is already battling "uterus" for the
> > attention of the polloi" "Careful! I have a baby in my vagina!"
>
> Well, that would cut down on travel time.
>
> LH
>
> > et sim. in
> > chains of sitcom dialog with no reference to birth.
> >
> > Clearly, it's a case of the part for the whole.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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