John's Blog

Euphemisms are the WD-40 of our daily conversations, the verbal lubricants that allow us to slip right past disturbing or unpleasant words and ideas. Politicians typically employ euphemisms to obscure true meaning, such as the classic "I misspoke" which transforms the harsher "I lied" into a more benign sounding statement. This sort of doublespeak has unfortunately become the backbone of our political discourse.

But more commonly, in everyday life euphemisms are employed to allow us to interject elements of profanity or sex into a conversation while steering clear of those annoying "hostile environment" lawsuits that can result if the real deal is employed in the workplace. Surprisingly the term "Bush Bashing" doesn't fall into either of these categories, but refers to an Australian cross-country trip. Go figure!

So what's the point here? As usual, I've got none. Just a thinly veiled excuse for a euphemism related link-dump:

The Euphemism Generator
The World's Funniest Collection of Masturbation Synonyms
Euphemisms for Female Masturbation
Top Ten Baseball Euphemisms For Sex
Richard & Kitty's World of Sex Euphemisms!
Cousin Mammy's World of Breast Euphemisms!
Woody's World of Penis Euphemisms!
Muffy's World of Vagina Euphemisms!
Sexual Euphemisms That Won't Catch On
Slate: The best corporate euphemisms
How to turn ANYTHING into a euphemism
The Downfall of the Modern Euphemism
Euphemisms for Stupid

Tags: euphemisms, doublespeak, humor, sex, silly stuff