# Euphemisms I hate **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 6, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612 "2013-05-06T13:52:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/141 "2013-06-07T13:13:21Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > I don’t know about Britain, but ‘made redundant’ has a particular meaning in Australia that doesn’t exactly mean ‘you’re fired’. > > Being made redundant means that the company is restructuring their workforce and there will be a **number** of people walking out the door with you. You will be offered a ‘redundancy package’ (a lump-sum payout depending upon your seniority and the years you have worked for said company) and often a signed agreement that you will not seek employment in the same field for (x) years after your termination (so you don’t share trade secrets with a competitor I guess). I hope they have a Department of Redundancy Department to handle all the paperwork. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/142 "2013-06-08T21:31:42Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > “Right to work” law > > Instead of Union suppression law. Or Union instead of mobbed up thugs. ---
**Author:** ![stoplight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@stoplight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stoplight)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/143 "2013-06-08T23:54:03Z")
1. Killing First, the hunting euphemisms: harvesting, taking, culling, thinning. It’s killing, so let’s just call it that. Lots of people do it. My late husband was a competent, enthusiastic, responsible hunter, and I’m not anti-hunting. If you have the balls and the stomach to gut a warm, bleeding animal whose life you just took for sport, not necessity, then at least have the balls and the stomach to use the Real Word to describe the act Meh, Biologist use thinning the heard, A mountain Lion culls the herd, Pilgrims harvested, its Noreaster slang. Same applies to fish, birds? ---
**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:** [June 9, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/144 "2013-06-09T03:27:21Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Hell, why do they call them **rest** rooms? They’re about the last place I’d want to take a nap in! Where I’m from, we call them ‘washrooms’. At least people do wash in them. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/145 "2013-06-09T16:58:23Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Where I’m from, we call them ‘washrooms’. At least people do wash in them. Well some do, some don’t ---
**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:** [June 9, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/146 "2013-06-09T23:27:48Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I hate the use of “adult” for “erotic”. > > There are lots of adult things out there that aren’t at all erotic. When I see an “adult” video store, sometimes I want to go in and ask if they’ve got the latest federal budget debate on DVD. Use your gonads and give your products their proper name. Along similar lines, how did “exotic” come to mean “erotic”, as in “erotic dance”? To me, good examples of exotic dance would be the Scottish sword dance or the Javanese Peafowl dance. Or even the Mexican Hat Dance–in short any dance from a cultural tradition that is new to me. Sometimes I wonder if it all started with some printer or sign painter who mistakenly substituted exotic for erotic. In some fonts and script styles, lower-case ‘r’ and ‘x’ do look quite similar. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/147 "2013-06-10T14:15:25Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > Ugh, that’s a bad one. For a while around here the term was “downsized,” which is bad enough, but then somebody got the brainwave to use “right-sized,” which is just insulting. Haven’t heard that one for years, though. > > I always kind of liked the British verision: “Made redundant.” “Made redundant” in the UK is a specific type of firing. It means you didn’t do anything wrong, but either your job doesn’t exist any more (due to restructuring, technology or something) or the company is going out of business or significantly sizing down. It always requires some form of extra pay. This used to be quite a lot of money and some people would be happy to be made redundant, but these days the amounts are a lot smaller. The legal minimum is a week’s pay per year of service, which isn’t a lot. It doesn’t usually (contrary to what someone else said) mean you can’t look for work in that field for years. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/148 "2013-06-10T17:10:07Z")
“F-bomb.” The word is FUCK. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/149 "2013-06-10T18:24:42Z")
My mother-in-law would sometimes describe a woman as having a “cute figure”. I eventually figured out that it meant she had big tits. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/150 "2013-06-10T19:40:46Z")
I’m not sure whether this is a euphemism, or just flat-out incorrect usage, but I HATE the way corporations use the word “colleague” instead of “employee” or “member of staff”. **Can’t find what you’re looking for? Ask a colleague!** says a sign in the supermarket. What? So if I can’t find the fabric softener, you’re saying I have to go all the way back to work, and ask one of my workmates for help?! Can’t I just ask one of the **employees** of the supermarket instead? It also annoys me when people say they “work in retail,” when they mean that they work in a shop. ---
**Author:** ![drew870mitchell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drew870mitchell/32/3946_2.png) [@drew870mitchell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drew870mitchell)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/151 "2013-06-12T15:58:46Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Cashier at Wendy’s: Will this be for the dining room this evening? > Listen, I am standing in Wendy’s. You don’t have a dining room. You have tables and chairs with snot and ketchup smears on them. There will be no candles and violinists at my table. > > What self-important marketing prick came up with this little gem? The entire Wendy’s experience is one big euphemism. You’re actually paying $5 for the performance art of watching them call a greasy square an “Old Fashioned Hamburger,” and potatoes “Quality Natural Cut Fries.” McDonald’s skirts the whole euphemism question by just calling everything McProducts now. I guess there’s no implicit lie about quality if there’s no Platonic ideal of a McChicken to look up to. Now if you don’t mind I’m going to go drink 32 ounces of corn syrup water. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/152 "2013-06-12T16:28:35Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Cashier at Wendy’s: Will this be for the dining room this evening? > Listen, I am standing in Wendy’s. You don’t have a dining room. You have tables and chairs with snot and ketchup smears on them. There will be no candles and violinists at my table. > > What self-important marketing prick came up with this little gem? Huh. That never struck me as odd. What the hell else do you call the room you dine in? To me, “dining room,” doesn’t mean anything fancy. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/153 "2013-06-12T16:44:18Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Cashier at Wendy’s: Will this be for the dining room this evening? > Listen, I am standing in Wendy’s. You don’t have a dining room. You have tables and chairs with snot and ketchup smears on them. There will be no candles and violinists at my table. > > What self-important marketing prick came up with this little gem? I have never heard this, ever. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > I didn’t know that one was still around - I’ve only heard it a couple of times, and that was 15-20 years ago. > > I remember being confused the first time I heard it, because my mind more readily associated “the dining room” with the one in my house, rather than the tables in the fast-food joint. I can’t recall for sure at this remove, but I think I may have said something like, “no, I’m eating here,” which undoubtedly confused the person behind the counter. You can’t recall for sure but you just know they were confused? Yeah, that’s believable. > [@](#): > > I think what I’d say if I heard it again is, “Let me explain: you do not have a dining room. What you have is the ‘here’ of ‘here, or to go?’ Either way, I’m not eating in the dining room: you don’t have one, and if I order this ‘to go,’ I’ll eat it at the kitchen table.” YEAH! Fight the Man! You go boy! > [@](#): > > Hell, why do they call them **rest** rooms? They’re about the last place I’d want to take a nap in! > > :eek: 😃 Why aren’t you fighting the Man on this issue Mr. Activist? Next time anyone says restroom tell them, “NO! No you fucking retared it is THE SHITROOM! THE SHITROOM!” ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/154 "2013-06-12T17:28:51Z")
I used to go to Wendy’s with a coupon for the Super Bar. When asked “anything to drink?” I’d reply “water, please.” The cashier would then say into a microphone “super bar, dine-in, courtesy cup.” Courtesy cup? Listen, Wendy’s, I’m the one being courteous by gracing your restaurant with my presence and heavily discounted meal price- quit telling everyone I’m too cheap to buy a drink!!! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/155 "2013-06-12T17:56:25Z")
It’s the pisser. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/156 "2013-06-13T03:34:22Z")
I hate it when politicians say something is unacceptable, especially to those of another country. Qualify it to be no-trade unacceptable, or no-diplomatic ties unacceptable, or all-out thermonuclear war unacceptable. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/157 "2013-06-13T05:28:46Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > … your mother never made any sacrifices for you, because she never cut out the heart of the neighbor kid on an altar to cure your mild fever? I don’t know about \*\*cwthree’s \*\*mother, but let’s just say that, well, since about age 4 I haven’t had any fevers, and leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/158 "2013-06-13T12:57:19Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Hell, why do they call them **rest** rooms? They’re about the last place I’d want to take a nap in! Full circle thread! It’s because it’s the room where you lay one down to rest and in which many people have died! Back in 1987, there was a movement to start calling it the passroom, because so many things are passed in there, such as gas, kidney stones, drugs, STD’s, etc.. but unfortunately the euphemism was too much for some to handle. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/159 "2013-06-13T13:07:17Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > The two euphemisms I guess I hate the most are using “share” instead of “tell” and “feel” instead of “think”. > > I don’t know if it falls under euphemisms or just ignorance and herd mentality, but I also hate that “impact” and its variants have nearly replaced “effect” and “affect” and their various forms. These are not euphemisms but specific definitions. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612/160 "2013-06-13T13:37:54Z")
> [@Bartman](#): > > You don’t kill the enemy, you neutralize them. I have to nitpick this one. There are two ways to beat an enemy army: 1. kill enough of them that they stop fighting/can’t fight anymore (Kill the Enemy) 2. Destroy enough infrastructure and supply sources to starve them of food, fuel and ammunitions. (Neutralize them) Most often the two are combined, but generally the preferance is option 2 as it saves your own army to not have to fight the enemy directly as often. The two are exclusive terms and not euphamisms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-i-hate/657612.md?page=9)