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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hey, what's with the mandatory apostrophe in "D'oh" anyway? Glottal stop or
hypercorrection?
Or something more...occult?

JL

On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 12:38 PM, 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: DPR--candidate for "most euphemistic"?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > On Jun 11, 2015, at 12:04 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >=20
> > On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >>=20
> >> DPR (direct potable reuse)
> >>=20
> >> [for the practice of recycling waste water into drinking water under
> >> consideration in drought-stricken California]
> >> cf. =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.cnbc.com_id_1025=
> 89492&d=3DAwIBaQ&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1T=
> sSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3Dbr83XzeCC6m7Lt56Sf8ghUEVNiBBu5y2ohlB4WWKSuI&s=3DzY4X=
> k_UZ3yMFriUJmCwPmxlo1UvVgbWseeE8OTg0Z88&e=3D=20
> >>=20
> >> 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.
> >=20
> > Relevant clip from last night's "Daily Show" (about 2 minutes in):
>
> Yup, that's where I learned about it.
> >=20
> > =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__thedailyshow.cc.com_=
> videos_hkjwb4_california-2Ddry&d=3DAwIBaQ&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3Dw=
> Fp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3Dbr83XzeCC6m7Lt56Sf8ghUEVNiB=
> Bu5y2ohlB4WWKSuI&s=3DwCoEyar5PvPrNvdlzBTUkOa4bdKAk-TOTJ-iDJEEZfU&e=3D=20
> >=20
> >> 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."
> >=20
> > Or, indeed, the 2014 winner for Most Euphemistic, "EIT" (for "enhanced
> > interrogation technique").
>
> D'oh!  I knew there was another recent one I was forgetting.  (I even =
> brought up that plain-brown-wrapper cover via initials to support EIT's =
> candidacy during the WOTY floor debate in Minneapolis.
>
> LH=
>
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