# Disgusting euphemisms **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 5, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682 "2004-03-05T11:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/21 "2004-03-05T17:01:27Z")
> [@FisherQueen](#): > > But ‘African-American’ is just too darned long. No language is ever going to discard a one-syllable word and replace it with a four-syllable word. If we decide to replace ‘black’ with something else, that’s fine- but it had better not take longer to say. Let alone a seven-syllable term. The first time I heard Jesse Jackson pull this one out, I thought it was stupid. “Black,” it seems to me, emphasizes that the difference between races is superficial; skin deep, as it were. “African American” suggests a wider, cultural divide, which I don’t think is helpful overall. I still prefer “Black”; whenever I say “African American” I feel like a PC weenie. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/22 "2004-03-05T17:01:45Z")
> [@LunaSea](#): > > I always have to laugh when I hear people like Nelson Mandela referred to as African American. I guess he should be called an African-African. Meanwhile, Moammar Ghaddafi would be an Non-African-African. No, wait… ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/23 "2004-03-05T17:02:52Z")
> [@Mayflower](#): > > I so totally agree with you! One I heard years ago to refer to fat people was “horizontally challenged.” AFAIK, this one never caught on. I’m glad, because it made this FAT person want to hurl! Wouldn’t Horizontally Challenged be a good PC term for a virgin ? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/24 "2004-03-05T17:24:07Z")
It’s not ’ PC ’ as that term is usually derogatorily understood, but there’s a new expression making the rounds that I’ve complained about before. “Passed,” meaning died. I don’t mean to bitch at people who are just trying to be nice, but it’s an absolutely stupid word, even worse than “passed away.” I was so sorry to hear your father “passed.” He didn’t “pass,” it wasn’t the damn SATs, it was glioblastoma multiforme. Can’t you just say “died?” Death is not rude. It happens to everybody. Feel free to dress it up as much as you want (“I was so terribly sorry to hear the sad news…” etc., etc., “…that your father _died_”) but, I mean, really, I bore up his pall, you’re not hiding reality from me somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/25 "2004-03-05T18:20:53Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Wouldn’t Horizontally Challenged be a good PC term for a virgin ? People who’ve only been done up against a wall might feel descriminated against. Seriously, how do, say, news broadcasts, etc, who have chosen to use Af.-Am. meaning “black American” describe black non-Americans apart from “African-American whoops”? “African-Briton”, etc would make sense, but I bet they don’t. I suppose the idea would be for people in Africa to be labeled more specifically, say as “South Africans” or “European South Africans” but I’m not really seeing that working… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/26 "2004-03-05T19:08:37Z")
The English perspective: ‘Afro-Caribbean’ is the standard term in Britain to describe black immigrants from that region, and their descendents, who make up the majority of black people in this country. Black Americans are just called American, with black used without capitalisation if relevant. ‘Hispanic’ is hardly ever heard. ‘Black British’ is a standard term, _with_ capitals, generally accepted by the communities in question: [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=459](http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=459) The other significant difference to American phrases is ‘Asian’ - here it tends to mean Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Sri Lankan. Japanese, Koreans etc are called by their nationalities, or ‘SE Asian’. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/27 "2004-03-05T19:46:57Z")
A couple of years ago I picked up a _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ novel and read it. Toward the end, a landing party comes across the remnants of a starship crew that had vanished some fifty years previously. Describing the ethnically diverse crew, the (so-called) author was pleased to call the black woman an “African-American.” Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![jeevwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@jeevwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevwoman)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/28 "2004-03-05T19:49:48Z")
My aunt had Downs Syndrome, and was born back in the day when she was called “retarded.” So that is what we called her. She even belonged to the Association of Retarded Citizens (known now as simply The Arc, to avoid the use of retarded). Of course, it’s different if you call someone a ‘retard’ when they are of normal intelligence and you are using it as an insult, but in general, when referring to someone who actually IS retarded, then I never saw what the problem was. When I refer to my aunt now as retarded, I even feel self-conscious, like I am saying a bad thing by simply describing her. But guess what? First of all, SHE had no idea what the word meant (she was extremely low-functioning) and secondly, she was MY friggin’ aunt. I think I am entitled to call her what I want. And as for having to label children in the school system as one particular race, my mom tells the story of when she had an Israeli in her class. Since my mom was pissed at having to identify what each of the kids were, she marked him down as Asian, since geographically that is what he was. The school system nearly shit itself and said she had to i.d. kids based on “what they looked like.” Yeah, that’s REALLY p.c! ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/29 "2004-03-05T19:53:38Z")
I do agree that African-American is a silly term, especially when used in reference to someone from another country. However, I do believe that the term “Native American” has merit. The term “Indian,” of course, should be used to refer to someone who’s from India. Calling a Native American an Indian makes as much sense as calling Nelson Mandela an African-American, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/30 "2004-03-05T21:26:56Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > The English perspective: ‘Afro-Caribbean’ is the standard term in Britain to describe black immigrants from that region… It might be the standard term for those who got their jobs from the Situations Vacant columns of ‘The Guardian’, but no black person that I know has ever described themselves as that and I know that if I referred to them as ‘Afro-Caribbean’ I would be the subject of intense and remorseless piss-taking. Of course, this is in the Real World…where the standard term is ‘Black’ What Local Authority/Civil Service Department/Quango do you work for GorillaMan? Or maybe you live in Cornwall… mascaroni… Anglo-Caucasian trichologically challenged person of uncertain parentage. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/31 "2004-03-05T21:31:54Z")
What everybody else here said. Especially the whole disabled/handicapped thing. Either of those words seem like okay descriptions. What the hell is wrong with them? I have a distantlyish related cousin (I’m not sure exactly how) who is mildly retarded. The word “retarded” doesn’t make me cringe half as much as the word I’m told her mother used to describe her (undoubtedly in the Dramatic Whisper, you know the one) – “afflicted.” However, she’s really come out of her shell in recent years and has a great life. She’s learned to read, too, I guess nobody even tried to teach her when she was a kid. _sigh_ And I’m with **matt\_mcl**. Death is a fact of life. My dad died eleven years ago this May. Calling it something else isn’t going to make me feel any better about that fact – I miss him like crazy. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/32 "2004-03-05T21:35:42Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > It might be the standard term for those who got their jobs from the Situations Vacant columns of ‘The Guardian’, but no black person that I know has ever described themselves as that and I know that if I referred to them as ‘Afro-Caribbean’ I would be the subject of intense and remorseless piss-taking. Sorry - I did mean a standard _externally-applied_ term. > [@](#): > > What Local Authority/Civil Service Department/Quango do you work for GorillaMan? None > [@](#): > > Or maybe you live in Cornwall… That’ll be what the Location information is for then :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/33 "2004-03-05T21:37:38Z")
I knew a white guy from South Africa that described himself as “African-American,” which tended to piss people off to no end. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/34 "2004-03-05T21:40:10Z")
…oh, in any case, it appears The Guardian prefers ‘African-Caribbean’. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/page/0,5817,184844,00.html](http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/page/0,5817,184844,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![Apricot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@Apricot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apricot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/35 "2004-03-05T21:45:02Z")
I try to call people what they’ve expressed a preference to be called. Therefore, I use black, gay, asian, and indian as what I prefer to say without other input, but I’d rather identify someone else as whatever they say they are. Kind of riding the tide of the people around me. It doesn’t really matter to me, just as long as I can figure it out. Personally, I’m indian, Cherokee, or american indian. The “Native American” pushers forgot to ask the indians what they thought. It’s not right to change a people’s name to something YOU don’t find offensive. That’s as offensive as making the term in the first place. White people don’t get to decide that anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/36 "2004-03-05T22:18:35Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > It’s not ’ PC ’ as that term is usually derogatorily understood, but there’s a new expression making the rounds that I’ve complained about before. “Passed,” meaning died. I don’t mean to bitch at people who are just trying to be nice, but it’s an absolutely stupid word, even worse than “passed away.” > > I was so sorry to hear your father “passed.” He didn’t “pass,” it wasn’t the damn SATs, it was glioblastoma multiforme. > > Can’t you just say “died?” Death is not rude. It happens to everybody. Feel free to dress it up as much as you want (“I was so terribly sorry to hear the sad news…” etc., etc., “…that your father _died_”) but, I mean, really, I bore up his pall, you’re not hiding reality from me somehow. Jesus H. Christ. “Passed” doesn’t sound like he died, it sounds like he ate a big bowl of bran flakes, and spent the afternoon on the toilet. Speaking as a guy who looks like he’s shoplifting canned hams in his pants, I’m relieved that “plus-size” never caught on as a euphamism for “fat.” ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/37 "2004-03-05T22:28:27Z")
This is what is known as the ‘euphamism treadmill’. It is what happens when a word becomes emotionally charged, and people try to change it without changing reason why it became emotionally charged in the first place. The new word gets the same connotations, and gets changed, until people wake up and realize the whole process is insanely stupid, and a waste of time. If you didn’t have a negative image towards the group the word represented in the first place, you wouldn’t have a need to change the word to try and steer your thoughts to where they should be. People try to change their words to change their minds, but it doesn’t work like that, and the whole process is doomed to failure. People instinctually realize this, which is why all but the most naiive of us get exasperated with the attempts of the clueless to get us to ride the euphamism treadmill with them. Just say no to the euphamism treadmill. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/38 "2004-03-05T22:45:05Z")
Fair enough, **GorillaMan** , I was just pointing out that the Languague of Brent Council Social Services isn’t the language that’s used in the rest of the country. I apologise for insulting you by insinuating you might be Cornish… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/39 "2004-03-05T22:49:07Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > Fair enough, **GorillaMan** , I was just pointing out that the Languague of Brent Council Social Services isn’t the language that’s used in the rest of the country. > > I apologise for insulting you by insinuating you might be Cornish… LOL…from my sister’s experience in Brent, it seems that council know only five words: “We have lost your forms” ---
**Author:** ![Phedre\_no\_Delaunay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@Phedre\_no\_Delaunay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phedre_no_Delaunay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682/40 "2004-03-05T22:49:57Z")
I totally agree with everyone who hates “passed”. Ugh! My father is dead, not “passed”. If he had lived would it mean he “failed”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-euphemisms/232682.md?page=3)