[Ads-l] Euphemism: unaliving

[Kelly Wright]

No worries,


We are hard at work to get a searchable index up on the ADS website. Should
be available by this time next year 🤞🏽🙂

All of our current installments are available on Duke University Press, who
generously allow ATNW to be open access for six months after publication.
So anyone who knows about us but doesn't have institutional access should
be able to download recent editions when they become available.

Again, if anyone can't access them and wants PDFs, let me know ☺️ Happy to
provide!


Yours,
K.

On Thu, Jan 16, 2025, 10:15 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Kelly. Apologies for not seeing that article.
> JSTOR coverage for the journal American Speech only includes 1925-1999
> (Vol. 1, No. 1 - Vol. 74, No. 4).
> Some journals have three or five year delays before appearing in JSTOR
> (moving walls), but American Speech seems to have a 25 year delay (in
> the version of JSTOR that I can see).
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 8:40 AM Kelly Wright
> <wrightlinguistics at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> >
> > We covered *unalive* at ATNW in August of 2022 (AS 97.3
> > <https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-10096035>). It is also discussed in
> our
> > algospeak installment (AS 99.1 <
> https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11186920>).
> >
> > I can't attach them, but if you'd like the PDFs, let me know!
> >
> >
> > Best,
> > K.
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 2:31 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Social media services such as YouTube and twitter rely on advertising;
> > > hence, they penalize users for employing terms like "killing" or
> > > "murdering" which are not deemed advertiser-friendly. Thus, a set of
> > > euphemisms have been popularized.
> > >
> > > Here is an excerpt from a recent tweet about jailbreaking an AI system:
> > >
> > > Social Network: x-twitter
> > > Handle: Pliny the Liberator @elder_plinius
> > > Timestamp: 6:25 PM, Jan 13, 2025
> > > https://x.com/elder_plinius/status/1878946571565650264
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt]
> > > Not to cause alarm, but if this agent had access to funds it would
> > > likely be capable of unaliving people
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > The OED has an entry for the adjective "unalive" with two senses.
> > > Citations begin in 1828 and 1905.
> > >
> > > [Begin OED excerpt]
> > > A1. Not fully susceptible or awake to something.
> > >   1828 Dry, mechanical theorists, unalive to sentiment and fancy.
> > >   L. Hunt, Lord Byron & Some Contemporary (ed. 2) vol. I. 377
> > > B2. Lacking in vitality; not living. Also figurative.
> > >    1905 How you can think yourself empty and unalive I don't know.
> > >    M. Dods, Letter 14 April (1911) 176
> > > [End OED excerpt]
> > >
> > > I don’t see any germane matches for "unaliving" in the ADS mailing
> > > list archive or on Barry Popik’s website.
> > >
> > > Here is a germane Associated Press article from 2023 which mentions
> > > the verb form of "unalive":
> > >
> > > Website: AP news service
> > > Article: Online, 'unalive' means death or suicide. Experts say it
> > > might help kids discuss those things
> > > Author: Jeff McMillan
> > > Timestamp: 12:38 AM EST, July 14, 2023
> > >
> > >
> https://apnews.com/article/unalive-suicide-tiktok-language-death-e605d4da81c02335a3b60d27c40562bc
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt]
> > > “Unalive” refers to death by suicide or homicide. It can function as
> > > adjective or verb and joins similar phrasing — like “mascara,” to mean
> > > sexual assault — coined by social media users as a workaround to fool
> > > algorithms on sites and apps that censor posts containing discussion
> > > of explicit or violent content.
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > A quick search in the twitter archive uncovers a pertinent tweet from
> > > August 2012:
> > >
> > > Social Network: x-twitter
> > > Handle: Ben Howarth @BenniBWFC
> > > Timestamp: 6:50 PM, Aug 6, 2012
> > > https://x.com/BenniBWFC/status/232609720760954880
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt]
> > > @AmyLouise395 @erinmarybrew done me a favour! Can't handle the
> > > dizzyness anymore! It's unaliving me ;)
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > On January 16, 2025 a Google search generated the following AI
> analysis:
> > >
> > > [Begin analysis from Google AI]
> > > "Unalive" is a slang term that means to kill or die by suicide. It's
> > > often used in online spaces to avoid censorship on platforms that
> > > remove content about suicide or self-harm.
> > > [End analysis from Google AI]
> > >
> > > Garson
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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