Euphemism

-


The word comes from Greek and literally means “to speak fair,” that’s fair as in “beautiful.”

So a euphemism has to sound better than the word it replaces.

But sometimes you don’t want to make nice. What about when you want to make things seem worse than they are?

Then you can’t use a euphemism, instead you have to use a dysphemism.

- courtesy Podictionary, the podcast for word lovers http://podictionary.com/index.php

Popular posts from this blog

Judy Grahn

-
Image
You are what is female and you shall be called Eve. And what is masculine shall be called God. And from your name Eve we shall take the word Evil. And from God’s, the word Good. Now you understand patriarchal morality. - Judy Grahn
Read more

Catching Up: Publications, Interview, Reviews, Teaching Gigs, Etc

-
Image
 In which I discuss the works of the late great Virginia Hamilton Adair, with thanks to Ashley Hajimirsadeghi of Sundress for the invitation:   Videlock on Adair Thanks to editor Tim Green of Rattle for publishing "Here in the West" back in September and "On Ceremony" back in January:  Here in the West, Wendy Videlock On Ceremony, Wendy Videlock Thanks also to Tim for interviewing me for a Rattlecast in March of this year:  Videlock Rattlecast My thanks to editor Rick Kempa for including "Ode to the Slow" in the anthology, Deep Wild, Writing from the Backcountry:  Thanks to Brian Palmer of THINK for printing "The Spare" and "The Old Wrangler" in a recent issue, and for accepting The Language of the Land, by the light of the moon , (a prosimetrum) for an upcoming issue: THINK, Videlock Thanks to Melissa Bailman for her inclusion of "Everybody's a Critic" in a recent issue of Light: Everybody's a Critic Thanks to Alex P...
Read more

Covid Times

-
Image
Well, it's been a while since I've haunted the ol' Ghost. Yes, we live in remarkable, evolutionary times.   And still, I find  the brokers gonna broker, the makers gonna make, the ogres gonna ogre.    My thanks to Rebecca Faust for soliciting a poem of mine for a feature in Women's Voices for Change.  Of the poem, which first appeared in Hudson Review, she writes:  Figures of speech help a writer to communicate ideas difficult to express in words or more effectively communicated non-verbally.   Schemes tend to work through sound and rhythm to produce a visceral effect felt in the body by making language more musical, persuasive, or memorable. In contrast, tropes appeal to the intellect by adding complexity or ambiguity to otherwise simple language. Broadly speaking, both types of figures of speech help engage both the hearts  and  the minds of readers, and in a very compressed and efficient way. A poem that really drives all...
Read more