[Ads-l] DPR--candidate for "most euphemistic"?

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> DPR (direct potable reuse)
>
> [for the practice of recycling waste water into drinking water under
> consideration in drought-stricken California]
> cf. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102589492
>
> The non-euphemistic but perhaps somewhat misleading name for the process
> is "toilet to tap", but the method of conversion does include
> intermediate steps rather than, say, a hose directly linking the former
> to the latter.

Relevant clip from last night's "Daily Show" (about 2 minutes in):

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/hkjwb4/california-dry

> What makes "DPR" especially congenial is that it only gets you to the
> euphemism indirectly, in the plain-brown-wrapper tradition of "E.D.",
> "STD"/"STI" (or the earlier "VD"), "P.E.", "B.O."

Or, indeed, the 2014 winner for Most Euphemistic, "EIT" (for "enhanced
interrogation technique").

--bgz

-- 
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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