"Good Speech"

"Euphemism" is derived from two Greek Words "eu" (good) and "pheme" (speech).

As far as I can tell, we use them in several ways:

1. To soften a word or phrase where a harsher word or phrase would be, well, too harsh. "Passed Away" is a common one for this example, as we use it when people are at a vulnerable point in their life, having lost a loved one.

2. To lie to people about what you are doing by calling it exactly the opposite of what it is. Bush must have 5 or more people working on his euphemisms full-time "Operation Iraqi Freedom" means the opposite of what it is: "Kill as many Iraqis as we have to, to achieve our goals". Orwell called this "double-speak".

3. To soften a condition so as to pretend a person does not have that condition. "diferrently abled" means if you cannot walk and are chairbound, we do not have to talk about it and we can pretend that you are not.

4. To out-an-out go so far with positive thinking that it becomes a total farce. Today's Toronto Star quotes one from the British Teachers' Association. No more will children fail - they will simply be in a state of "deferred success". That beats out the best (worst) one ever, that was pointed out by George Carlin: Not "learning disabled" but "minimally exceptional". On my list for sometime, also British, is "positive disrimination" (that's always been right up there with "reverse sexism" or "white slavery"). Well the dear old Brits call garbage "dust" and reffered to the carnage of The Great War as "the unpleasantness".

Tom.