# Annoying euphemisms. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 11, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480 "2012-02-11T01:09:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mewl\_Dear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/1 "2012-02-11T01:09:27Z")
I am sure there are threads but it is hard to search. Reading some other thread someone said they let the dog out to use the bathroom. I am pretty sure the dog was going out to piss/shit. My ratio of baths to pissing is probably close to 0/100,000 (don’t rember last bath). I call it the pisser. I got more but will see how this goes. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/2 "2012-02-11T20:15:44Z")
Agreed. I say I’m taking the dog to see a man about a horse. She ends up chasing cats, rabbits, and birds though. I spent some time in Viet Nam, and several times heard an American (it seems to be an American idiom) asking at a restaurant or bar where there was a bathroom, which was just completely baffling to the Vietnamese wait staff, who did speak basic English. You want to take a bath here? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/3 "2012-02-11T20:26:40Z")
We let the dog out to “be a dog”. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/4 "2012-02-11T20:33:56Z")
I hate the expression “to put to sleep”, used instead of “to euthanize” or “to kill out of mercy”. What do you say when you actually need to cause a dog to sleep? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/5 "2012-02-11T20:35:46Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I hate the expression “to put to sleep”, used instead of “to euthanize” or “to kill out of mercy”. What do you say when you actually need to cause a dog to sleep? it’s not just animals; if it was, people wouldn’t “pass away.” Death is an unpleasant topic, and I’m sure people don’t feel like telling others “I had to kill my dog yesterday.” ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/6 "2012-02-11T23:26:57Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > it’s not just animals; if it was, people wouldn’t “pass away.” Death is an unpleasant topic, and I’m sure people don’t feel like telling others “I had to kill my dog yesterday.” It’s been six years since the last time I took my dog to the vet and that’s how I always describe it: “the last time …” I’m crying now just thinking about it and couldn’t imagine speaking about the event in harsher terms. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/7 "2012-02-11T23:52:04Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > [I] heard an American (it seems to be an American idiom) asking at a restaurant or bar where there was a bathroom, which was just completely baffling to the Vietnamese wait staff, who did speak basic English. You want to take a bath here? That reminds me of trying to speak high school Spanish to a grandmotherly type in Spain. She could not figure why I wanted to bathe… I guess that’s good. > [@jabiru](#): > > [T]hat’s how I always describe it: “the last time …” I’m crying now just thinking about it and couldn’t imagine speaking about the event in harsher terms. I know exactly how you feel, except it was a little more recent for me. I get a little verklempt even writing that. I think there are annoying euphemisms and equally annoying Bluntisms (somewhere between a Euphemism and a Dysphemism). I gotta go shoot a deuce comes to mind. An annoying euphemism that really bothered me was when an adult woman said that her mother had “lady-cancer.” I think the Bluntism would be: crotch-cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/8 "2012-02-12T01:34:05Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I hate the expression “to put to sleep”, used instead of “to euthanize” or “to kill out of mercy”. What do you say when you actually need to cause a dog to sleep? I don’t like it either. Euthanize is perfectly clear and equally considerate. > [@jz78817](#): > > it’s not just animals; if it was, people wouldn’t “pass away.” Death is an unpleasant topic, and I’m sure people don’t feel like telling others “I had to kill my dog yesterday.” I dislike “pass away” or “passed” as well. I get why people say it, but I think it speaks to a cultural fear of death that we have folks afraid to say “He/She died.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/9 "2012-02-12T01:57:56Z")
> [@George](#): > > Martha, will you show her where we keep the, uh, euphemism? mtfp ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/10 "2012-02-12T02:20:39Z")
I had a flatmate who referred to her period as her “Polly Ps”. “I’m feeling poorly, I’ve got the Polly Ps.” :barf: ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/11 "2012-02-12T04:00:45Z")
Hey, I once had a co-worker who suddenly took off and when I asked the boss where she went he said “Aunt Flo came to visit.” After a couple seconds I figured it out. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/12 "2012-02-12T04:48:17Z")
> [@Mewl\_Dear](#): > > Reading some other thread someone said they let the dog out to use the bathroom. Well, to me, if you said the dog was “using the bathroom” it would sound odd, and maybe conjure up some weird images, but it wouldn’t strike me as at all strange if you said the dog was “going to the bathroom.” Go figure. I think it’s more properly an **idiom** than a **euphemism** , though. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/13 "2012-02-12T05:51:29Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I don’t like it either. Euthanize is perfectly clear and equally considerate… I dislike “pass away” or “passed” as well. I get why people say it, but I think it speaks to a cultural fear of death that we have folks afraid to say “He/She died.” And it references the belief of some that the spirits of the dead pass on to another world. It is in sharp contrast to “put to sleep”, which is unforgivingly inaccurate. If I told the kids that the dog was “put to sleep”, they’d be asking when we were going to wake him up! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/14 "2012-02-12T06:00:39Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > If I told the kids that the dog was “put to sleep”, they’d be asking when we were going to wake him up! I agree. Better to tell them the truth and say “We paid the vet to force poison into his veins until he died”. That will avoid annoying questions. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/15 "2012-02-12T08:22:02Z")
> [@Mewl\_Dear](#): > > I am sure there are threads but it is hard to search. > Reading some other thread someone said they let the dog out to use the bathroom. > I am pretty sure the dog was going out to piss/shit. > My ratio of baths to pissing is probably close to 0/100,000 (don’t rember last bath). > I call it the pisser. > > I got more but will see how this goes. So, you replace one euphemism with another more annoying one? How about toilet? ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/16 "2012-02-17T16:07:57Z")
Completely misread the thread title. I agreed that there are annoying euphoniums and can’t figure out what you guys are discussing. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoying-euphemisms/612480/17 "2012-02-17T16:22:49Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I hate the expression “to put to sleep”, used instead of “to euthanize” or “to kill out of mercy”. What do you say when you actually need to cause a dog to sleep? Administer a soporific?