Euphemism

Euphemism (Gr. eu, 'well,' and phēmi, 'I speak'), a figure of rhetoric by which an unpleasant or offensive matter is designated in indirect and milder terms. Thus, instead of directly calling up an unpleasant image by the word died, we may say 'he was gathered to his fathers.' The ancient Greeks used a multitude of euphemisms, to avoid words that were thought to be ominous of evil, or offensive to the unseen powers. They spoke, for example, of the Eumenides, or 'benign goddesses,' instead of the Furies; just as the elves and fairies of more modern folklore used to be spoken of as 'good neighbours.' This instinct of politeness in speech, which seeks to hint at an unpleasant or an indelicate thing rather than name it directly, has had much to do with changing the significations of words: thus, 'plain' has usurped the sense of ugly; 'fast,' of dissipated; 'gallantry,' of licentiousness. It is doubtful whether this modern process is completely to the advantage of our language, which has already lost much of its ancient noble simplicity, and may lose more from a mawkish and prurient nastiness which fondly imagines itself the mother of nice ideas.